SYNTAXIC MODE
Chapter IV: The Syntaxic Mode - Creativity
Chapter IVa pages 245-319 (251k) An Overview of Creativity
4. THE SYNTAXIC MODE (CREATIVITY) 245
4.1 INTRODUCTION 245
4.11 Introduction 245
4.12 The Numinous Element as the Collective Preconscious............................... . 250
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited 257
4.14 The Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function 261
4.15 Siddhis 264
.151 General 264
.152 ESP, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychometry and Accelerated Mental Process 266
.153 Human Auras and Kirlian Photography 267
.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain 268
.155 Power over Fire: Psychic Heat 269
.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight 271
.157 Psychokinesis 272
.158 Physiological Aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
.159 Miscellaneous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana-6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana-5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity282
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic .... 286
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental . . . . . . . 287
4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness . . . . . . . . . . 290
.351 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 .
353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
.354 The Role of ESP in Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
.355 Dreams and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self -Actualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37a Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37b General Research on Self-Actualization . . . . . . . . 304
.37c Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good . . . . . . . . . 306
.37d Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37e Increased Control over Environment . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37f Sense of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37g Acceptance of Self, Others, Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37h Spontaneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37i Detachment and Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37j Gemeinschaftgefuhl (Brotherly Love) . . . . . . . . . 308
.37k A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor . . . 308
.371 Psychological and Semantic Flexibility . . . . . . . . 309
.37m The "Witness Phenomenon .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory . . . . 310
4.39 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana-4) 314
4.41 General Introduction 314
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation 316
4.43 Alpha and Creativity 319
Chapter IVb pages 320-391 (234k) Orthocognition, Meditation, and Higher Stages
4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana-3) 320
4.51 General Principles 320
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral? 327
4.53 Orthocognition Compared 328
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing 330
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana-2) 332
4.61 General Information 332
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu 337
4.63 Transcendental Meditation 338
4.64 Psychocatalysis 340
4.65 Arica 341
4.66 Zen 342
4.67 Vedanta 344
4.68 Integral Yoga 345
4.69 Conclusion 348
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY 351
4.71 Response Experiences (Jhana-1) 358
4.72 Adamic or Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0) 361
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1) 366
4.74 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree I (Jhana 2) 369
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3) 373
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4) 373
4.77 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.9 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Chapter IVa pages 245-319 (251k) An Overview of Creativity
4. THE SYNTAXIC MODE (CREATIVITY) 245
4.1 INTRODUCTION 245
4.11 Introduction 245
4.12 The Numinous Element as the Collective Preconscious............................... . 250
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited 257
4.14 The Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function 261
4.15 Siddhis 264
.151 General 264
.152 ESP, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychometry and Accelerated Mental Process 266
.153 Human Auras and Kirlian Photography 267
.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain 268
.155 Power over Fire: Psychic Heat 269
.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight 271
.157 Psychokinesis 272
.158 Physiological Aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
.159 Miscellaneous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana-6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana-5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.31 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity282
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic .... 286
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental . . . . . . . 287
4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness . . . . . . . . . . 290
.351 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 .
353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
.354 The Role of ESP in Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
.355 Dreams and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self -Actualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37a Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
.37b General Research on Self-Actualization . . . . . . . . 304
.37c Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good . . . . . . . . . 306
.37d Serendipity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37e Increased Control over Environment . . . . . . . . . . 306
.37f Sense of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37g Acceptance of Self, Others, Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37h Spontaneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37i Detachment and Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
.37j Gemeinschaftgefuhl (Brotherly Love) . . . . . . . . . 308
.37k A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor . . . 308
.371 Psychological and Semantic Flexibility . . . . . . . . 309
.37m The "Witness Phenomenon .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory . . . . 310
4.39 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana-4) 314
4.41 General Introduction 314
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation 316
4.43 Alpha and Creativity 319
Chapter IVb pages 320-391 (234k) Orthocognition, Meditation, and Higher Stages
4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana-3) 320
4.51 General Principles 320
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral? 327
4.53 Orthocognition Compared 328
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing 330
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana-2) 332
4.61 General Information 332
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu 337
4.63 Transcendental Meditation 338
4.64 Psychocatalysis 340
4.65 Arica 341
4.66 Zen 342
4.67 Vedanta 344
4.68 Integral Yoga 345
4.69 Conclusion 348
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY 351
4.71 Response Experiences (Jhana-1) 358
4.72 Adamic or Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0) 361
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1) 366
4.74 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree I (Jhana 2) 369
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3) 373
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4) 373
4.77 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
4.9 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
*** (page 245)
Chapter Four
THE SYNTAXIC MODE: CREATIVITY
John Curtis Gowan
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger . . . is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center to true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious men.
-Albert Einstein
4.11 General Introduction
We come now to the culmination of our search, for if there is any fit vessel in the universe to receive the numinous element in propria persona it is the human consciousness in the syntaxic mode. All that has gone before, the trance miracles of the prototaxic, and the magical art of the parataxic, are like the dumb show and the music before the play - the mere overture to the cognitive powers and the affective glories of the syntaxic mode. Creativity is the popular name for the mode, as were trance and art for the earlier ones, but this mode is creative with a vengeance. For it displays besides creativity, escalation, emergent capacities undreamed or unheard of before, intuition, transcendence, ecstasy, metamorphosis, and salvation.
The syntaxic mode embraces three levels or stages. The first is the creative (including mediation) which we identified earlier (1972) as the sixth developmental stage, and the occultists call the third state of consciousness. This level generally involves the ordinary state of consciousness, although there may be momentary intuitive intimations of something higher. Siddhis (psychic powers) are generally absent, although a few are found in creative states, some in biofeedback and orthocognition, and perhaps more in meditation. We identify five procedures in this level:
tantric sex- 6,
creativity-5,
biofeedback-4,
orthocognition-3,
and meditation-2.
The numbers are jhana (page 246) numbers, originally applied as positive numbers to the highest eight procedures in the syntaxic mode; we have taken the liberty of extending them downwards into negative numbers so as to characterize as accurately as possible each procedure successively. The affective thrill for tantric sex is, of course, orgasm, while for the rest of the procedures it is creative inspiration; all the procedures save tantric sex show an infusion of cognitive knowledge which comes from some other source than conscious accretion or rote learning. All this is shown graphically in Table VIII.
The next level we have called earlier (1972) the psychedelic (for mind expansion), and have identified as developmental stage 7. (The occultists call it the fourth state of consciousness). This level has the property that those in it experience a transient altered state of consciousness known as an ecstasy in which there is loss of self, time, or space, the infusion of a special knowledge, and purification of self. Siddhis are often seen. There are six procedures in this level (see Table VIII).
a) Response Experience (Jhana -1) (nature-mystic, oceanic, or peak experience);
b) Adamic Ecstasy (Jhana 0) ("cleansing of the doors of perception");
c) Knowledge ecstasy (Jhana 1) (illumination through special instant knowledge);
d) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 2) (contact with numinous element);
e) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 3) (rapture ceases);
f) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 4) (all feelings cease).
This level is the purview of the mystic life. Finally there exists a highest level which we now call the unitive (earlier we had called it the illuminative). It is development stage 8, and the 5th level of consciousness for the occultists. Words fail to be of much use in describing this high level and its four procedures (Table VIII.) Those few who may dwell here are in a permanent altered state of consciousness, with attendant siddhis (which they evidently disdain to use). Since there are very few of them, and they shun publicity, we know very little about this level. Goleman says there are four procedures, all involving self-transcendence, and the last two Union. They are:
a) Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) (consciousness of infinite space);
b) Transcendental contact (Jhana 6) (objectless infinite consciousness);
0 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) (awareness of "no-thing-ness");
d) Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) (neither perception nor nonperception) (see Table VIII). (Page 247) Table VIII Properties of Syntaxic Procedures and Graces
Table VIII represents a primitive attempt to make synoptic sense out of Underhill (1960), Laski (1962), and Goleman (1972) in regard to the order of these higher procedures. It is probable that we have made errors of placement. Further, the table may discriminate for the sake of clarity in ways which are not found in practice (since many mystical experiences are mixed). Also there exist some minor disagreements. Goldman places meditation in occult state 5, while Laski denies that the response experience is a true ecstasy. (The
(page 248)
testimony of many poets, and nature mystics would indicate that it is).
The essential feature of the syntaxic mode is the attempt to grasp the numinous element with the mind rather than with the body. It would perhaps be more accurate to state that this involves the cognition as well as the emotions, although the affective aspect culminates in ecstasy, another characteristic of the syntaxic state. Furthermore, the cognitive aspect is characterized by two specifics:
(1) an effort to relax or tranquilize the mind by some technique of interior quieting, in which there is diminution of perceptual intake. In Wordsworth's words:
And when upon my bed I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.
(2) Some orthocognitive structuring, which is involved less with the pantheon of ultimate reality than its relationship to the self, and to the world of space/time. The syntaxic mode is characterized by the richness and spectacularism of its emergent aspects found at successively higher procedures. Creativity and ecstasy are early examples of this, but there are others.
The issue here is the conscious disposition of prana or psychic energy. Imagine that you are at a water pipe through which water is flowing under pressure (Figure IX). In front of you are several spigots; the pipe then ascends vertically and is open ended at the top where there is a shower head. What do you do to keep from getting soaked? Obviously you open one or more of the spigots in front of you. This is a fair analogy to the flow of pranic or psychic energy. The spigots available to you are (1) sexual outlet, (2) creative outlet, (3) orthocognition, (4) meditative outlet, or the shower- head (psychic tricks). If you want to keep dry you must open one or more of the spigots, depending through which of them you wish to express psychic energy. If you shut them all off, the shower-head will overflow, which is why occult literature since time immemorial has prescribed sexual abstinence as a preparation for paranormal feats, (not because sex is bad, but because it discharges psychic energy). If psychic energy is discharged through creative or meditative spigots it can be used in individually or socially useful ways, and the more we open any of the spigots the less likely we are to get soaked by the shower head. This again shows why it is not a wise thing to get involved in occultism before one is creative or meditative.
(page 249)
Fig. IX Flow of Prana or Psychic Energy
We have hitherto described the individual units comprising a mode as "procedures" because they are choices by which men can proceed. Due to a remarkable emergent property of the syntaxic mode, we must (for clarity) change this nomenclature in the middle of the mode. For while the activities of the creative level are "procedures," the activities of the psychedelic and unitive levels are not, since they are not within the conscious choice of man but come to him in some sudden, adventitious, and transcendent manner as if (to revert to religious language), by the grace of God. We have accordingly called them "graces." Poulain called them "The Graces of Interior Prayer" in his book of the same title (1912).
There are fifteen procedures/ graces in the syntaxic mode. Unlike those in the earlier modes, these are developmental and form a hierarchy of mind expansion from formal operations to the infinite. They might therefore be called degrees of expansion or development, as each successive procedure/grace is likely to possess emergent qualities. Because of this aspect the procedures/ graces are divided
(page 250)
into three stages - the lowest known as the creative, the middle as the psychedelic and the highest as the unitive. These stages as we have elsewhere indicated (1972) are also developmental, being the cognitive aspects of the Eriksonian intimacy, generativity, and ego integrity affective components.
Since we write from a background of Christian culture, and since most of the literature of mysticism with which we are familiar comes from that culture, we perforce are reduced to quoting and using the language of religion which involves the concept of personal God. This usage does not signify a change in our views from the impersonal aspects of the numinous element or a reversion to orthodox Christianity; it is merely a necessity forced upon us by circumstances.
4.12 The Numinous Element As The Collective Preconscious
It is now time to take another look at that shadowy concept introduced in Chapter One - the numinous element. We have gained enough perspective to look at the concept more thoroughly, and we are also in a better position to make a rational explication. The numinous element in the prototaxic mode is such a dreadful mysterium tremendum that the uncanny emotion aroused by it precludes careful thought. In the parataxic mode, the numinous element is veiled and accessible aesthetically rather than cognitively. But in the syntaxic mode, as a result of creative strivings in the individual, the numinous element appears in a less fearsome guise as the collective preconscious. Let us trace the mechanism through which this appears in some detail.
Let us imagine a mathematical function f(x,y,z) in three dimensions. This can be intuited as a physical surface, such as a rolling landscape with hills, dales, etc. It is possible to take partial derivatives of this function in any one of three dimensions, and these partials will be very different from one another (for example, one partial might be a line running up a hill, and another at right angles might run down a valley). In a roughly similar way, when a superordinate reality such as the numinous element is "partialed" into a concept which we (locked in space, time, and personality) can visualize, it can be done in several ways. In the next paragraph we have detailed one method. But another is that the numinous element appears in each of us as the "collective preconscious." We use the term "collective preconscious" instead of Jung's "collective unconscious" because research has accumulated since indicating that this aspect of the psyche can sometimes be available to the conscious mind. Indeed, its availability results in creativity. Since we shall have much use for this concept, it is desirable to discuss it in detail, and this is done in section 4.3.
(page 251)
In order properly to understand the syntaxic contact with the numinous element it is necessary to clarify a hierarchy of relationships which are difficult to explicate since we are not used to this kind of thinking. We can best do this through analogy to the mathematical process of integration, which involves summation of the area under a curve and its expression in a higher dimension. Thus involved in integration is the concept of transcendence on reaching for a higher function with greater degrees of freedom. (An example would be the relationship between an individual life and the cycle of reincarnations of which it is but one instance.) To such a cycle we give the name "entity." Again summating "entities" we reach another integration which we believe are archetypes. It is obvious that the direction of motion here is from the personal self to the numinous element.
Now let us similarly take a space-time event in the physical world and likewise integrate it over time and space. We get then what we have referred to previously (3.41) as the "durative topocosm" (roughly the spirit of the climate of an area). Integrating again creates an archetypic analog which we shall identify as "mythic devas." We have again moved from the physical towards the numinous element.
All this can be set down in Figure X, in which God is the triple integral of man with respect to time, space, and personality. Now, what is the pay-off from all this hard thinking?
It is immediate. In place of the lightning-like, ego-paralyzing discharge of the numinous element energy in the prototaxic mode, or the veiling of the numinous element in the parataxic mode, we now have constructed a series of "step-down" voltage transformers interposed between the individual mind and the numinous element which can safely discharge its awesome power in useful ways, just as the various transformers interposed between household electrical circuits and the high voltage electricity of the high-tension line can change potential destructive energy into useful power,
The advantage in this complicated mechanism is that the human ego can remain conscious and therefore profit from the contact cognitively.
At each level, the particular function contains an infinity of possibilities or potentialities which are expressed at the next lower (differential) level as a series of wavelike pulses. And the function of orthocognition is to select which of these many potentialities we choose to manifest in the world of our self-concept. Such a view is incredibly optimistic for it gives us a purchase on the durative topocosm of events which allows us to select from an infinity of potential events those particular ones which we choose to have actualized in our vivency. It is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of this concept; for this reason, the reader is encouraged to reread this section at this time. We shall expand on the practical possibilities of this principle under section 4.5 on orthocognition.
(page 252)
Table X Successive Integrations of Person and Thing
Figure X is also useful in considering the "three illusions" (section 4.13), since it involves a transcendence of ordinary time. One of the striking aspects of all behavior which relates to the numinous, prototaxic, parataxic, or syntaxic is this peculiar "melting" of clock time, which time appears to be a property of the ordinary state of consciousness. For example, quoting Eliade on the attempt of the primitive to "break away from profane time into the Great Time" which is the essence of mythical behavior, Greeley (1974:46) says:
(page 253)
The ecstatic experience. . . . is an attempt to recapture a Great Time or primordial time or mythical time by breaking away from the present time.
In comparing the three modes in regard to their attempts at time transcendence, Greeley (1974:47) notes that there are similarities between trance and ecstasy for "in both, ordinary time and place are suspended." He then again quotes Eliade (1967:71-2) who states: "The ecstasy re-actualizes. . . . what was the initial state of mankind."
We have the testimony of the mystic Simone Weil (Waiting on God) on the fact that mystic experience is a sudden "integration" of this kind when she says:
At times the very first words tear my thoughts from my body and transport it to a place outside space where there is neither perspective nor point of view. The infinity of the ordinary expanses of perception is replaced by an infinity to the second and sometimes to the third degree. . . .
The issue of time transcendence is essentially a religious one: As Ellwood (1973:72) puts it: "A touchstone of meaning in any religion is its handling of man's experience of living in time." He points out that different religions deal differently with the problem: one way is the technique of meditation and mysticism which attempts to transcend time in the eternal now; another evangelical model holds up the archetypal figures of a messiah or a "Great Time" in which one tries to live, as one becomes convinced of the "imminent end of the present age."
Ellwood (1973:17) points out that there are two ways in which religion attempts to transcend time:1
The first is mysticism which creates an interior psychological time so divorced from exterior clock ... time that ideally it does not move at all, but remains in an eternal now of bliss. The second is apocalyptic, which lives for a moment when, by divine intervention from without, time in all its destructive aspects will be demolished. . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us start with the equation for the location of a physical object in Einsteinian space-time: W2 = X2 + y2 + Z2 - C2T2, where X, Y, Z, are space coordinates, C is the velocity of light and T is the time coordinate. Analysis of this equation provides us with the proportion that time (page 254)
is to space as "i" (the square root of -1) is to 1. Now "i" multiplied by itself is -1, so that in a metaphoric sense we can say that the time dimension is "half" a space dimension. Curiously one finds this out intuitively. We have full intuition of the three spatial dimensions, but we cannot intuit the fourth dimension, so we experience it as "time." Furthermore this experience is not full; it is partial, for we are on a one way street indicated by "time's arrow" which allows us always to experience duration as getting later and later, but never the opposite.
Such consideration suggests that what is not fully intuited can most easily be transcended, and this is precisely what we find when in the presence of the numinous element - "time begins to melt around the edges." Furthermore, it is also curiously suggestive that the concept "three and one half" (three spatial dimensions and half a time dimension) keeps turning up again and again. Item: the Kundalini serpent power is said to be wrapped three and one half times around the lowest chakra center: (liberation consists in unwrapping the pranic power and sending it up the spine: a rather nice metaphor when one thinks it through). Item: Toynbee found in his study of history that the rally-rout theory proceeds through three and one half cycles. In the cocoon of life we potential butterflies sleep in a physical net which secures us fully in three dimensions; but in the fourth dimension (which we intuit as time) we are not restrained as securely and that is where the ball of string starts to unwind.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past
If all time is eternally present . . .
says T. S. Eliot in "Burnt Norton." Sri Aurobindo was very clear that time was one of the first aspects to unravel when one became "orientated" or enlightened. His biographer Satprem notes (1968:96) that as we become psychologically conscious "the most immediate" experience is that "of always having been and of being forever." For this awakening, as he says elsewhere (1968:268) involves "global vision, undivided vision, and also eternal vision." It is therefore "the conquest of time." But language itself is so entangled in time that we cannot properly speak of the noumenon, for as he again declares, (1968:297):
It is a perpetual beginning which is not anywhere in time; when we say 'first the eternal, then the becoming' we fall into the illusion of spatio-temporal language. . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(page 255) We have discussed elsewhere (Gowan 1974:134-7) the gentling of the preconscious which is one of the guises in which the numinous element presents itself to the individual. It starts in childhood as the traumatic "not-me" of Harry Stack Sullivan (see section 2.1) presented in the prototaxic mode; it continues as archetype motivating dream, myth, ritual, and art in the parataxic mode, and finally comes to conscious thought as the preconscious source of creativity in the syntaxic mode.
One can imagine this separate reality as veiled from our normal state of consciousness, so that in the prototaxic mode we must dissociate somewhat to come in contact with it, while in our reality it appears to exist (as Troward noted) in a hypnotized state, embedded in the psyche of each of us. Because of its plenary and numinous quality, such an entity will create grandiose effect; because of the dissociative chasm, these effects generally first appear in prototaxic and parataxic form. Hence the supernatural beings of archetype, myth, and fairy tale, and the enactive ritual, dance, and mimetic movements of primitive society. But creativity and the syntaxic mode is the surfacing of this element in consciousness.
We now are in a position to appreciate that the numinous element is truly like the "Smoking Mirror" god of the Aztecs; it presents itself to us in whatever guise the level of our minds is able to accept. For the savage and the immature, it is the mysterium tremendum full of sound and fury; for the image maker, it is full of image-making; for the man who is finally able to think, it reflects creative and psychedelic glories.
The numinous element is not personal. It is like a genie in a bottle in needing release by the conscious personal mind in order to assume its full and powerful service. Like a genie it does not belong to the one who is using it, but for short periods of time gives him access to the whole of human knowledge and experience, as if he were connected to the terminal of a giant computer. In addition, being the inverse of nature, it controls not only the autonomic nervous system, and hence the mental and physical health of the individual, but also all other elements represented by the self-concept, in short, the natural environment. It is one of life's supreme paradoxes that all of the substantives modified by the adjective "my" are controlled by an entity which is absolutely impersonal. Powerful and "awe-full" as is this impersonal entity, it is also property under the control and direction of our conscious rational minds if we choose to exercise this regnancy. This control of the species mind gives us dominion
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over every aspect of our environment including our future evolution, and since it makes man a co-creator, is actually the highest function of self-consciousness.
McGlashlan (1967:116) puts it this way:
It is, after all, no new idea that the dreaming mind can be equated with a crucial mutation of consciousness. In the Bardo Thodol it is said that in the Fifth Stage of the world's development, a stage not yet actualized, "Ether" will dawn in the consciousness of man. This is the kind of statement from which contemporary educated minds turn away in immediate distaste. The word "Ether" used in such a context evokes memories of dusty and discredited systems of thought about the structure of the universe, or even less acceptably, recalls the woolly abstractions of Theosophy. But this is mere semantic prejudice. The psychical attributes of "Ether" as conceived and defined by the Lamas are, in modern terms, precisely those of the Deep Unconscious. They believed, in fact, that what we call the Unconscious is a "transcendental" consciousness higher than normal consciousness, and as yet undeveloped; and that it will become the active consciousness of the next stage of the world's development, which they estimated would occur in the twentieth century. This is at least an intriguing anticipation, across the intervening centuries, of the increasing attention now paid to dreams and the unconscious.
Interestingly, the Russians approach the same concept from another angle. Berdyaev says (1944:57):
Geniality (in the Russian, not English sense) is not to be identified with genius. Geniality is the whole nature of man; it is its intuitive creative relation to life. Genius, on the other hand is the union of this nature with a special gift.... The image of God in man belongs to geniality.
The translator of Berdyaev notes (1944:4) that the Russian word sobornost is the despair of all translators from Russian. "Altogetherness" would come nearest its meaning. It is the dynamic life of the collective body. Berdyaev, himself, says (1944:68):
There is only one acceptable meaning of sobornost and that is the interpretation of it as the interior concrete universalism of personality, and not the alienation of conscience in any kind of exterior collective body whatever. The free man is simply the man who does not allow this alienation. (page 257) That this individual empathy for and participation in communitas is not equivalent to individual absorption in the collective state is clearly stated by Berdyaev (1944:201) as follows:
In this connection the principal difference between sobornost and collectivism is to be seen. Ecclesiastical sobornost has in history often assumed forms of human slavery and the denial of freedom ... but the actual principle of Christian sobomost cannot but be personalist. Sobornost as spiritual communality is to be found in the subject not the object; it denotes a quality of the subject, the disclosure of universality in him.
Regarding the impersonal character of the numinous element Pearce (1971:46) says:
Attributing characteristics of personality to this function is a projection device which turns the open end into a mirror of ourselves, trapping us in our own logical devices.
It is important to insist upon the impersonal aspect of the collective preconscious, because this gives our concept of it a machine-like quality (something like a giant computer), which stresses its latency (until acted upon by the conscious will), and also its accessibility (to any conscious will which gets to the computer terminal). This machine-like quality of "subjectivity" or carrying out of any suggestion impressed upon it contrasts with its numinous quality which evokes awe and dread in the archaic man which remains in each of us. That qualities ascribed to Deity and to a machine can reside in the same entity is a mind-stretching concept, but it will be helpful to remember that the phrase "deus ex machina" has had a history since classical times. It is also helpful to remember that this entity is also an aspect of the Eigenwelt or inner world of man, and hence we are looking at a much more humanistic view of cosmology, and to put it crudely a "machina ex deo."
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited
It is now time again to look at "the three illusions" of section 1.3which the conscientious reader may here wish to reread. If he will do so now he will see that Shakespeare truly prophesied when he wrote The Tempest, IV:I:
Our revels are now ended; these our actors
As I foretold you - were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all that it inherit, shall dissolve
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind: we are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (page 258) "The three illusions" - space, time, and personality - constitute the prison wherein consciousness is incarcerated. And the Ego locked into this prison does not know at first that any other state is possible. But when through orthocognition2 these restrictions are perceived as the illusions which constitute and define our present normal state of consciousness, then this more accurate view of reality gives us the power to intuit what other, and more liberated states of consciousness, unknown to us previously, may be like. And this expanded understanding allows us to appreciate the freeing aspects of altered states of consciousness. For whether in trance or meditation, their first effect is to free consciousness from space, free it from time, and free it from the little selfish ego.
Let us listen to Symonds (Brown, 1895) as quoted by James (1902:246):
One reason why I disliked this kind of trance was that I could not describe it to myself. I cannot even now find words to render it intelligible. It consisted in a gradual but swiftly progressive obliteration of space, time, sensation, and the multifarious factors of experience which seem to qualify what we are pleased to call our Self. . . . Often I have asked myself with anguish . . . which is the unreality?
Campbell (1974:33) points out that Schroedinger (1967) the great physicist, confronted with the same question, proposed the same simple but radical solution: he equated subject and object and stated that the "I" who observes the universe is the same "I" who created it, so that the concept of separate "I's" is a myth.
Space is filled with things; time is filled with events, and personality is filled with persons. Things, events, and persons constitute the realia of nature, the class of substantives, the plenum of phenomena. They comprise the objects of the normal state of consciousness. They are no more substantial than their defining parameters; for space, time, and personality define the normal state of consciousness; indeed, they specify it.
A real, three-dimensional man walks along the street, casting a two-dimensional shadow on the building. Which is more real, man or shadow? Now imagine that this two-dimensional shadow casts
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a one-dimensional shadow of its own, and further, that this one-dimensional shadow in turn casts a shadow which is a zero-dimensional point. How would you compare man and point? In a similar manner ultimate reality casts a shadow of itself in space, in time, and in personality. We are that dancing, weaving penumbral point, a zero-dimensional shadow thrice removed from multi-dimensional reality, whose antics can no more be explained by "our" own history, than the behavior of a shadow can be explained by investigating shadow instead of substance.
If our mortal condition is one of being locked into the triple prison of space, time, and personality, and if mystic ecstasy can offer a glimpse of freedom, then it is appropriate to ask if in such states there is not loss of space, time, and the sense of self. The answer is that reports of mystic states are notable for exactly these openings, (see Sections 4.72 and 4.73).
Since the orthocognition3 in "the three illusions" is so enlightening, it may be expected to occasion profound changes in affective response. These attitudinal changes are in line with the Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia Objectives of Education in the Affective Domain (1964) which are receiving, responding, valuing, conceptualization, and value complex. Because of the importance of the "three illusions" construct, it is worth while going through this process in detail.
The initial state is one of non-reception. When the concept of "the three illusions" is first presented, it is rejected as "impossible." Then the idea is entertained on an intellectual plane only. All of a sudden, it hits one affectively, and is "received." The force of this emotional impact is hard to describe discursively; it really must be felt. It appears to involve some kind of interior reorganization: all of a sudden a whole new way of looking at things is gained. Before we were confined, and knew it not; now we know we are in a prison of time, space, and personality, and recognize there is something greater outside. When Miranda first finds out that there are other men than her father alive (and presumably more affectively interesting) she exclaims: "Ah, brave new world! that hast such creatures in it!" And this is precisely the feeling of the individual that Shakespeare has described. This "reception" is first diffident, then more complete. It spreads like a Kohlberg "decalage" over the entire emotional area.
Next comes response involving action and a change of behavior. Because all things are seen differently, one responds differently. The response is first halting, then more and more ardent. Strong attitudinal change is evident in changed behavior noticeable to others. One becomes an enthusiast, centering one's attention more and more on the new concept.
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Response leads to the next level: valuing, in which the affective aspect reaches its height in what may appear to be excesses of emotion and action. Such a stage is akin to being infatuated with love or fanatically obsessed by religion. The heart seems to be enflamed, and psychic epiphenomena may be noted. It may be time to cool the ardor of the affective domain by resort to more prosaic activities. This "cooling" should lead to the next level of conceptualization, where the new interest becomes somewhat integrated with older loyalties and some sort of a hierarchy of values begins to be established. This sorting out is completed in the final step where a value complex (or reconciliation between values) which results in a working philosophy of life, becomes evident.
The fish does not realize that water is rare in the universe, that what he considers his natural environment is an anomaly in many ways, and that he himself is an early evolutionary form. In the same way we do not realize that our normal state of consciousness with its three apparent (but illusionary) properties of location in the space of the physical world, location in time, and location in personality is also an anomaly, and that we are likewise an early evolutionary form. As the function of water is to provide an environment in which the fish may find himself and develop, so the function of the normal state of consciousness is to allow the developing ego-consciousness to be oriented in space, time, and personality, as a kind of matrix in which there can be escalation of consciousness from the prototaxic mode through the parataxic mode to the syntaxic mode. The differentiation and focusing of this consciousness from a dim generalized consciousness of flora, and the more particularized but still undifferentiated consciousness of fauna, is one of the chief tasks of human development and evolution. But this should not blind us to the fact that the normal state of consciousness is a kind of prison (perhaps a better analogy would be a confining matrix like a seed bed for sprouts), and that ultimate reality is completely outside it.
Einstein understood this well, when he said (N.Y. Times March 29, 1972):
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "Universe." A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security. (page 261) 4.14 Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function
In the bridgework which science and mysticism are building to span the chasm which separates them, it is now appropriate to notice a remarkable development from the scientific side. This has to do with the physiological investigation of the differential functions of the right cerebral hemisphere. Although this study is veritably in its infancy, enough has already occurred so that the jocular crack: "God dwells in the right hemisphere" may have more truth than humor it in. To investigate this subject properly it will be necessary to review a bit of elementary physiology.
The brain is composed of two cerebral hemispheres, each of which governs the motor activities of the other side of the body. The two hemispheres appear to work as dual controls, being joined by a massive conduit of nerves known as the corpus callosum. About 1950 Myers and Sperry discovered that if the corpus callosumwere cut, each hemisphere could function independently as if it were a complete brain. This discovery led to a number of intriguing questions such as what are patients like who have had this operation? and are there differential hemisphere functions?
Sperry and Gazzaniga (Gazzaniga, 1957) conducted tests to show the differential function in split brain patients. These showed that for some reason, the left side of the brain quickly assumed the normal functions of speech and writing, and that the right side was unable to speak and write. The right side, however, is not without intelligence. When a patient feels fruit with his left hand in a photographer's change muff in which there are (for example) two apples and an orange, he cannot say what the fruit is, but he can signal that the two apples are alike and the orange is different. The right hemisphere of such patients also handled spatial relations better than the left. It also appears from other research to handle holistic concepts and creative imagination better. Gazzaniga (1972) summarizes his research by saying "While the corpus callosum is intact we have our normal sense of conscious unity." Sperry (1968) in a previous article has discussed the function of hemisphere disconnectedness in removing unity from conscious experience.
We call attention to the "visual image" aspect of the right hemisphere functioning, because the "visual image" keeps occurring throughout this volume as a herald of the perception of the numinous. It is found in telepathy, healing, orthocognition, and creativity. Downing (1973)
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in doctoral study noted three important characteristics associated with creative inspiration: (a) task-irrelevant thinking, (b) experienced as an autonomous phenomenon, and (c) in the form of a visual image.
Ornstein (1973) declares that physiology has now provided in right and left hemisphere research the explanation of the two modes of consciousness, rational and intuitive. The left hemisphere is largely involved in analytic thinking, speech, and logic, and the sequential processing of information. The right hemisphere specializes in spatial orientation, artistic ability, body awareness, facial recognition, and integrating material in a holistic, creative, and simultaneous manner. We find this digital-analog computer model continually popping up to explain the right-left hemisphere differentiation.
Analogic communication with its roots in an archaic period of evolution is more generally valid than the relatively recent, more abstract digital mode of verbal communication. Wherever relationship is the central issue of communication, digital language is almost meaningless. Wherever relationship is the central issue there is a reliance on analogic communication which is very little changed from the analogic inheritance handed down to us from our mammalian ancestors. Man is the only organism gifted with the use of both the analogic and the digital modes of communication; and has found the use of these modes of communication to be in a complementarity. There is a great difficulty, as man, in his necessity to combine these two languages must constantly translate from the one into the other. (Watzlawick 1967:67):
Digital language has a highly complex and powerful logical syntax but lacks adequate semantics in the field of relationship, while analogic language possesses the semantics but has no adequate syntax for the unambiguous definition of the nature of relationships.
Fischer (1974) reports:
It has been known for some time that the left hemisphere - the "dominant" in most right-handed and in two-thirds of the lefthanded people9 - functions as a digital, analytical, sequence perceiving, and field articulating brain hemisphere concerned with speech, language, writing, and arithmetic; while the "minor" or right hemisphere is in charge of analogical, synthesis-oriented, non-verbal information processing visual-spatial gestalts and fields, metaphoric signification through intuition, imagery, and music.10 During most ordinary activities of our daily routine (i.e., when neither hyper- nor hypo-aroused) we may "feel free" to shift from
(page 263) the cognitive mode of the "major" or Aristotelian (an Apollonian) hemisphere to that of the "minor" or Platonic (a Dionysian) hemisphere and vice versa.11 While a hemisphere-specific task is solved by the appropriate hemisphere, the activity of the other is repressed or inhibited. Moreover, Aristotelian logic and language may be interhemispherically integrated with Platonic imagery. But when levels of subcortical arousal are raised (as during creative, hyperphrenic, catatonic and ecstatic states) or become lowered (as in the hypo-aroused meditative states),12 there is a gradual shift of information processing from the Aristotelian to the Platonic (cortical) hemisphere. I posit that such loss of Aristotelian freedom to make rational decisions is implicit in the findings of Goldstein and Stolzfus13 who claim that states of stimulation, excitation, anxiety, and hallucination correspond to a progressive narrowing of interhemispheric EEG amplitude differences with eventually complete reversal of their relationships. These findings are in agreement with and account for the non-verbal, visual-spatial and audio-spatial symbolic nature of dreams and hallucinations and we may now describe dreams and hallucinatory trips as truly exciting voyages from the rational, Aristotelian cognitive mode into the intuitive, metaphorical, and timeless spaces of the Platonic hemisphere.
Hence the source of imagination may be found in those hallucinatory and meditative states of self-awareness during which visual-spatial symbols and meaning become the ordering structure and function of in-sight. During these states the Aristotelian laws of "symmetry," "identity" and "tertium non datur" lose their validity: time may be reversible, things and signs may become symbols for other meanings; in short, the prevailing "laws" strangely resemble those which govern the realm of subatomic particle physics. [His footnotes]
Even the turning left or right of eye or head movements during thinking and problem-solving may indicate which side of the brain is operating. Bakan (1971) related such movements to right or left hemisphere dependency. He noted that left movers have higher hypnotic susceptibility scores, emit more alpha waves under controlled conditions, all of which would tend to be compatible with right hemisphere dominance. It also appears that the right hemisphere may function better at low levels of stimulus arousal, such as an altered state of consciousness. Further research in this area has been done by Kinsbourne (1972). This section represents only cursory notice of an emerging science
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which is still in its infancy. Due both to the primitive state of the art, and the lack of expertise of the writer, it is very far from complete. But at least, the reader is put on notice that important discoveries, linking physiology with some of the more esoteric aspects of mind, are now in the making.
4.15 Siddhis4
4.151 General
In the process of mind-expansion man acquires, as a byproduct of his development, the possibility of some unusual powers. These powers are known as siddhis, seldom seen naturally, but are said to be "developed" by yogis and others as a result of spiritual training. Indeed, the beginning of these matters may be seen in creativity, and are discussed in section 4.37; the siddhis also are related to the paranormal aspects of trance (section 2.4) except that in the syntaxic mode it is not necessary to go into trance to induce them. There is an almost universal feeling among those versed in these areas that while psychedelic mind expansion is desirable, psychic powers such as the siddhis are distractions and temptations on the road to development, and that their cultivation is not in one's best interest. Huxley (1945:260) reports that "The masters of Hindu spirituality urge their disciples to pay no attention to the siddhis, or psychic powers, which may come to them unsought, as a by-product of one-pointed contemplation. The cultivation of these powers distracts the soul from Reality. . . ."
One of the reasons for this injunction is that the cultivation of such powers serves to entrench the ego, whereas the process of deliverance from the triple prison of time, space, and personality involves the transcendence of the personal ego. One of the best reasons for the triple monastic vow is that the acquisition of power before one has lost the selfish ego may place one in a lotus land where, having acquired such powers, one never wishes to renounce them.
The siddhis can be looked upon as a transitional stage in the general process of rapid change which causes "unstressing."
Unstressing is caused by the beginning of an energy flow through the body of an individual who is not yet at a high enough level to accommodate to the pranic energy properly. It offers resistance, and this resistance is in the form of unstressing symptoms.
From what has been discussed in Chapter 2, we are now in a position to order the symptoms of rapid progress towards enlightenment starting from a base of unregeneracy and nearly total ill mental health as follows:
1. the Boisen panic-reaction symptom of positive disintegration; (page 265) 2. severe somatic unstressing, bodily twitching and movement;
3. moderate unstressing, generally confined to vocalization, such as the Jackins syndrome of yelling, crying, laughing, etc.;
4. light unstressing (such as sighing); in meditation, distracting thoughts;
5. access phenomena, momentary extended pure awareness siddhis;
6. witnessing in sleep;
7. pure awareness.
We may therefore note that whereas the table I is a taxonomy of distance along the developmental path, the description above is really a taxonomy of the speedalong the same path, with speed being indicated by the degree of presenceof the unstressing and level being indicated by the kindof unstressing. Or mathematically put, if one calls the developmental level "x," then the presence of unstressing phenomena is the first derivative of "x." From which it looks as though the phrase "all deliberate speed" was seconded by the Supreme Court from an even higher source.
If siddhisare akin to the relativistic effects of speed on a moving body, it reinforces the psychic dictum that they are adventitious phenomena and should not be sought or paid attention to. Our interest in them is really almost as prurient as our fascination with the revealing of a female dancer's thighs as she whirls during a polka. But like those shapely thighs, the siddhis do reveal a fundamentalform - in their case the transcendence of the laws of physics by the more general laws of metaphysics.
According to Mookerje (1966:143), the kundalini power which in ordinary folk is absorbed in bodily function, can be released and transformed until its highest sublimation results in nirvanic bliss. As the kundalini current rises through each chakra center, the individual enters a new stage of consciousness. Intense heat is generated by the passage of the kundalini energy through the successive chakras. It is our guess that embarkation upon any procedure of the syntaxic mode begins this power release. We further hazard that one of the occult values of creative performance is that the kundalini power (prana) is absorbed by the creative outlet, and that hence the psychic heat and other psychic effects are not seen. This provides a rather safer route to enlightenment.
The flow of prana through an unregenerate and unenlightened person can be compared to the flow of electricity through a coil of high resistance. There is a common result: the generation of heat. Thus the bushman in trance perspires and says that his medicine is hot. George Fox takes off his boots in winter and wanders barefoot through Lichfield because of the heat in his feet.
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As we shall see in the section on orthocognition (4.5), there is a moral question involved in whether man should make any use of these powers, or whether there should be a delicate balance between a sparing use of them and a corresponding advance toward deliverance from the triple prison. The fact that they are often seen in advanced persons, who, however, are cautious in their employment, results in the fact that there is very little public display of these syntaxic effects, in contrast to the paranormal aspects of trance (section 2.4). In keeping with this policy, we shall downplay emphasis on this feature, particularly on the more spectacular aspects, and content ourselves with a mere enumeration and some citing. These categories are as follows:
1. (general);
2. ESP: telepathy (space); precognition, psychometry, and accelerated mental process (time);
3. auras, Kirlian photography;
4. healing and the anesthesia of pain;
5. psychic heat and control over fire;
6. clairvoyance, levitation, magical flight, OBE;
7. psychokinesis;
8. physiological aspects: breathing, kundalini, psychic sound; change in autonomic processes;
9. miscellaneous effects.
It is interesting to note that 5 represents power over fire and water (psychic heat), 6 represents power over earth, and 8 represents power over air (the four elements of ancient times). One can also look upon the siddhis as liberation from the strictures of time and space.
4.152 ESP
(a) Telepathy. Telepathy is a kind of intuition, a "direct knowledge of distant facts." It seems to be an evolutionary step which is gradually being acquired by man. (Prince, 1963:13, 55,119); (Myers, 1903:261ff); Sinclair (1971:128); (Weil, 1972:187); Gowan (1974:24).
(b) Precognition. Ability to foresee the future. One of the most compelling powers, because it clearly reveals that the numinous element is outside time. Hard for most to accept, although evidence is very universal. (Prince, 1963:68, 70, 73, 98, 101, 108, 110, 114, 121, 134-6, 190, 201, 202, 216, 255, 251) which contains the precognitions of some very famous people; (Fodor, 1964:21); (Gowan, 1974:25). Riviere (1973:53) declares that it is by the awakening of the heart chakra center that the liberation "which enables one to see the three forms of time, past, present, and future" comes about.
There may well be a difference between precognition of the future and determinism of that future. For as Huxley (1945:185) points out "Knowledge of what is happening now does not determine the event."
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Precognition of future events may be an invitation from the numinous to intervene in those events if they are untoward. Precognition seems to be a siddhi particularly applicable to jhana 0 and above, with the "de-clutching" of the ego from time. It may also be experienced in drug-induced psychedelia (Masters and Houston 1966:165).
(c) Psychometry. The ability to tell about an object's past upon handling it (Gowan 1974:25-6).
(d) Accelerated Mental Process (AMP). (See section 2.44),
4.153 Human Aura, Kirlian Photography
If indeed this subject is a siddhi, it is one which appears more easily explainable on physical principles, and also one which is more common than many others. We have placed it here because of the fact that the ability to see the human aura has in the past been said to be a sign of advancement either in the agent or the percipient. (The aura around the heads of saints would be an example.)
A pioneer in the study of the human aura from a scientific standpoint was Kilner (1911) who describes how with the aid of goggles enclosing an elixir of dicyanin B (pinacyanol) the human aura can be seen in a darkened but not black room. It consists of two parts, an inner aura of about four inches and an outer aura of about eight more. It is recognized with the rods of the eyes, and is composed of ultraviolet rays, looking grayish-blue. Kilner states (1911:37):
I believe that the rods in appropriate light are capable of receiving rays the wavelength of which is slightly shorter than that producing violet, and of translating them into visible light. In my opinion, we see the body's aura with the rods.
Kilner (Ibid:39) points out that the rods secrete rhodopsin which is split by light into vitamin A plus a protein; in the dark, rhodopsin is again built up from vitamin A plus the protein, and thus A is necessary for the regeneration of rhodopsin. Kilner (lbid:67) also noted a void between the aura and the body, which he identified as the "etheric double." Again (lbid:73) he notes that the aura fades upon death or loss of consciousness, and return of consciousness brings it back gradually. The outer aura haze is to the inner aura as the ectoderm is to the endoderm (lbid:79), hence the outer aura is connected with sex and the nervous system, and the inner with the alimentary system.
Kilner (lbid:84) believes that the outer haze is ultraviolet radiation. The inner aura, however, seems electromagnetic and can in some cases be magnetized. Both Kilner and Bagnall (1970) believe that the human aura is purely an objective and physical phenomenon,
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composed of physical emanations of weak intensity, mostly ultraviolet electromagnetic waves.
In their book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, Schroeder and Ostrander (1970) disclosed to the West the advances made by S. D. Kirlian and his wife in photographing auras, especially of finger tips by direct contact onto a high voltage, high frequency charged plate. (NOTE: The process is dangerous, and should not be attempted by amateurs). There appeared to be flares from the fingertips, and indeed from any living organism, such as a leaf. Perfection of the technique enabled the Kirlians to examine the effect in time, directly instead of taking photos, and this revealed that the aura seemed to be alive and moving.
Thelma Moss at UCLA took up this study and extended it to the "auras of healers." She has been able to show that the fingertip auras of both healer and patient change after the healing session (text and photos Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1972, section C, page 1), (see also Moss, 1972). This area is now in very rapid development, with the most authoritative book at the present moment being that of Krippner and Rubin (1973).
4.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain
Curiously, this is a subject about which the Hindus do not talk much, although Satprem (1968:113) notes that illness is "always the result of a wrong attitude," and that progress in yoga tends to free us from it. Healers, however, are found in every society, and many of them appear to be advanced individuals who do not need to go into a trance state to heal.
The Christian tradition, however, from its Founder onward, is an unbroken record of psychic or spiritual healing. Indeed, one of the chief tenets of Christianity, as established by Jesus and all of the early disciples, was the ability to heal. In various ways, this aspect has been carried on in the Church until the present. Catholic saints can only be canonized upon proof of such miracles. Laying-on-of-hands is an ancient rite of the church. Many modern religions, and most revivalists, have at their center the concept of healing through prayer. Since the literature in this area is large and available, we shall not attempt further notice of it, contenting ourselves with a few general observations.
Syntaxic healing (healing without trance) is a central part of orthocognition (sections 4.53, 4.54), and orthocognition as a sister procedure may in some respects be considered as a twin to creativity. So healing and creativity are two aspects of a single underlying motif.
At the present time there are a number of independent psychologically oriented attempts to understand the psychodynamics of healing (not as a miracle, but as evidence of natural power of which we
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are still mostly ignorant).5 Acupuncture is one such example. Psychosynthesis is another. The work investigating the auras of healers through Kirlian photography is a third, (section 4.153). Other associations and foundations investigating this area include:
1). The Human Dimensions Institute, Rosary Hills College, 4380 Main St. Buffalo, N.Y. 14226, (Jeanne Rindge, director);
2). The Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine, 314 Second St. Los Altos, Calif, 94022;
3). The Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas (Dr. E. E. Green);
4). Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) 34 W 35th St. NYC. also ARE Clinic, 4018 N. 40th St. Phoenix, AZ 85018.
Healing appears to be an early dividend of contact with the numinous element, no matter whether that contact is in trance (2.44) or by ritual (3.5), or in the syntaxic mode through orthocognition (4.5). Through these means, man possesses the method of restoring health and of making himself whole. Syntaxic healing involves preventative as well as therapeutic aspects; though these are never as spectacular, they are in the long run more important.
4.155 Power over Fire, Psychic Heat
These allied siddhis represent endothermic and exothermic pranic reactions; the former is more often seen in the prototaxic state, the latter in the syntaxic. Psychic heat seems to be caused by the ascent of the kundalini power; it is a commonly described yogic power (Evans-Wentz, 1967:158-9). It is claimed that some yogis can dry thirty sheets per night in this manner (Sivananda, 1971:156).
This heat is but a special aspect of the general problem of unstressing. Ward (1957:195-201) says:
First there is this indescribable sensation in the spine, as of something mounting up, a sensation which is partly pleasure and partly awe.... This was accompanied by an extraordinary feeling of bodily lightness . . . but it was also, somehow, a feeling of living more in the upper parts of one's body ...a certain rather peculiar awareness of one's head....
Laski (1962:78) speaking about mystic heat notes that Suso felt flame of intense heat in breast. Richard Rolle felt true heat in heart .6
The severe somatic unstressing involving tingling, shivers, and clicks are also seen under many allied conditions. Laski (1962:73) notes that during mystic ecstasy, references to tinglings and shivers are common. Her Q44 speaks of a "ringing that goes on," her Q54 "an electric sensation in the chest spreading over the whole body," her Q57 notes "something creeping up the spine." Berenson describes "an ideated tingling on and in my skin," L10 reports "the hair on my head tingling; shudders and shocks also sometimes appear."
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Laski (1962:88) quotes Houseman, J. The Name and Nature of Poetry (p. 47):
Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts because if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles(1) so that the razor ceases to act. This particular symptom is accompanied by a shiver down the spine; (2) there is another which consists of a constriction in the throat; (3) and a precipitation of water to the eyes; (4) and there is a third which I can only describe by borrowing a phrase from one of Keat's last letters where he says, speaking of Fanny Brawne "everything that reminds me of her goes through me like a spear." (5) The seat of this sensation is the pit of the stomach (i.n.o.).
One may note in this remarkable piece of somatic observation five separate effects: (1) horripilation, (2) kundalini, (3) globus hystericus, (4) gift of tears, and (5) solar plexus chakra center opening.
Laski (1962:258) quotes Custance regarding spine shivers and head clicks he got when creative ideas came. She says: "Here linked in the context of mental improvement are the shivers, the electric shocks, the feeling of something falling into place so often characteristic of ecstatic experiences."
If the reader will compare sections 2.23 on Unstressing and 2.62 on Religious Trances, he will find enough similarity to make it obvious that we are talking about different levels of the same process. Whether one sees this activity as "unstressing," the ascent of the kundalini, or as the spilling over or prana of psychic energy, really makes little difference. Even advanced yogis can feel similar sensations. Younghusband (1930:71) quotes Ramakrishna's reports of his trance:
Something rises with a tingling sensation from the feet to the head. So long as it does not reach the brain, I remain conscious, but the moment it touches the brain, I am dead to the outside world. I try to relate what I feel when it goes above the throat, but as soon as I think it over, up goes the mind with a bound, and there is an end to the matter.
One of the few novelists writing today who has an understanding of mystical experience is the Australian Nobelist White.7 (His Riders in the Chariot is a memorable account of four such persons.) In it (1964:134) he quotes an unnamed Hadisic work about a man meditating at night. His candle has just gone out:
. . . the light continued. I was greatly astonished because after (page 271) close examination I saw it was as though the light issued from myself. Saying "I do not believe it," he walked through the house and then lay down and covered himself up and the light continued.
Eliade (1964:412) declares:
The same continuity between ritual and ecstasy is also found in connection with another conception, which plays a considerable part in pan-Indian theology: tapas whose original meaning is "extreme heat," but which came to designate ascetic effort in general. Tapas is definitely documented in the Rig-Veda.... Prajapati creates the world by "heating" himself to an extreme degree through asceticism; he creates it by a sort of magical sweating. The "inner heat" or "mystical heat" is creative ... for example it creates the countless illusions or miracles of the ascetics or yogins.... Now inner heat forms the integral part of the technique of "primitive" magicians and shamans; everywhere in the world acquisition of "inner heat" is expressed by "mastery over fire," and in the last analysis by the abrogation of physical laws. . . .
Later in the same place Eliade tells us that this excess of heat was obtained "by holding the breath."
Greeley (1974:12) notes that some mystics see a pale blue light during ecstasy.
4.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight
These related siddhis have to do with the movement of a vehicle of consciousness. While in levitation it does seem to be the body, it is most generally a conscious out-of-body experience (OBE) from which we get "traveling clairvoyance," and the yogic "magical flight." Riviere (1973:35) claims that these powers are gained by alerting specific chakra centers. Sivananda (1971:152) identifies the siddhi which makes this possible as "laghima." OBE and traveling clairvoyance have been widely noted in the west (Crookall, 1964, 1966, 1970, Muldoon and Carrington, 1951, 1970, Monroe, 1971, Gowan, 1974:1821), some incidents being in trance, but some without it. See also Evans-Wentz (1967:166).
Levitation is a more esoteric matter, although there exist several traditions of Christian saints who experienced it. In the East, it seems somewhat more common (David-Neel, 1971:208, Fodor, 1964:27-8). Maritain tells that the sacristan saw St. Thomas Acquinas levitated "nearly three feet off the ground" while in tearful prayer to the crucifix.
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Magical Flight is attributed to some yogis, in a manner similar to shamanistic powers. It is not clear, however, whether the physical body of the yogi is thus engaged, or whether it is a conscious OBE.
Eliade (1964:409) declares:
Buddhist texts speak of four different magical powers of translation, the first being to fly like a bird. In his list of siddhis obtainable by yogis, Patanjali cites the power to fly through the air.
Satprem (1964:67) quoting Sri Auribindo, says:
If we had not had thousands of experiences showing that the Power within could alter the mind, develop its powers, add new ones, bring in new ranges of knowledge, master the vital movements, change the character, influence men and things, control the condition and functioning of the body, work as a concrete dynamic force on other forces, modify events ... we would not speak of it as we do.
4.157 Psychokinesis
This matter has been discussed previously in section 2.46.
4.158 Physiological aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound
The common element here has to do with control of the body, particularly its autonomic nervous processes, until recently thought to be independent of man's conscious control. The Hindus tell us that this is accomplished through breathing exercises which start the kundalini power on its ascent of the spinal column. (Satprem, 1968:313) declares that it is pranic energy which is released, and there are many correspondences with acupuncture.
Recently there has been independent confirmation in the West of many of these processes (Houston, 1973; Green and others, 1971b; Wallace and others, 1971, 1972).
Laski (1962:79) notes: "The impression given by mention of changes in breathing seems to be . . . of a deep breath before the ecstasy, a holding of the breath at or up to the time of climax, and a need to take deep breaths afterwards."
Suso is cited as "heaving great sighs from depths of his soul." St. Augustine says, "We sighed and there we leave bound the first fruits of the spirit and returned to vocal expression."
Laski (1962:281) notes that the definition of inspiration is: a breathing in or infusion into the mind of some suggestion, idea, or creation.
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Psychic sound
Esoterically, sound seems to have some of the generating qualities of radiant light. The Hindus are very emphatic about the importance of basic sounds, such as AUM as generating entities; in particular the mantras are composed of such sounds. The prevalence of the "AM" sound in Sanscrit (as seen in the names of many letters of the alphabet) suggests that there is some kind of basic hum (perhaps associated with various frequencies), which represents some kind of "carrier frequency."
Westerners know very little about these matters, but "toning" (section 2.44) is one western example. It is also true that during developmental process, perhaps as the result of unstressing, one hears psychic sound. Laski (1962:84) points out that mystics very occasionally experience involuntary speech or cries during mystic tumescence (possibly a parallel to the involuntary cries of sexual tumescence). Speaking further of the noises heard during ecstasy, Laski (1962:218) notes that they are compared with water, wind, or thunder, or they may figure as voices in muffled communication as at a distance. Tennyson says that at this time he was hearing "the hum of men or other things talking in unknown tongues." 8
4.159 Miscellaneous Effects
Among the more notable are the creation of apparitions (David-Neel, 1970:60-2). This is known as a "tulpa" (see also Pearce, 1971:27), the power of invisibility (by stopping the sensory percepts of others) (David-Neel, 1971:303); the accelerated motion (lom-gom-pa) which allows yogis to traverse vast distances.
The eight major siddhis (Sivananda, 1971:152-3) involve diminution in size, increase in size, levitation and magical flight, increase in specific gravity, clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition and healing, invisibility, taming wild animals, and controlling others, and resurrection of the dead. There are also twenty-six minor siddhis, some repetitions of the eight major ones, and some (like turning base metal into gold, and finding hidden treasure) scarcely what one would expect from an enlightened person.
Mooney (1896:948ff), crediting Brown's Dervishes, discusses Sufi mysticism. He tells that through various spiritual and meditative exercises the dervish gains an internal spiritual power:
Among the practices of these powers is the faculty of foreseeing coming events; of predicting their occurrence; of preserving individuals from the harm and evil which would otherwise certainly result for them; of assuring to one person success over the machinations of another, so that he may freely attack him and prevail over him; of restoring harmony of sentiment between those who would otherwise be relentless enemies; of knowing when others devised harm against themselves, and through certain spells of preserving themselves and causing harm to befall the evil minded, and even of causing the death of anyone against whom they wish to proceed. All this is done as well from a distance as when near. (page 274) Dramatic powers such as the siddhis are very spectacular exhibitions of the regnancy of the numinous, but like other spectacular exhibitions, one may ask if all this is really necessary had there been better planning in the first place. One of the advantages of psychedelic control in the syntaxic mode is that one avoids problems and untoward circumstances rather than reacting to crises in a spectacular manner. It is certainly more foresighted to prevent the onset of problems than to resort to heroics as a last resort. One is reminded of the considered judgment concerning the charge of the Light Brigade. "It is magnificent, but is it war?"
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana -6) Discussion of the prototaxic mode ended with an anchor point of "higher" trance. Symmetry demands that discussion of the syntaxic mode begin with a prototaxic anchor point which we identify as tantric sex. While Easterners might deny that ritualized sexual intercourse is a major or even important part of tantricism, it seems otherwise to Westerners. For us there is no simpler or clearer way to explain tantric sex than to say that it refers to those aspects of sexual union which are beyond the modern9 meaning of the verb "to fuck." These aspects are explained by Donath (1971:85) as "the loss of oneself in the unity of love.. . a prototype of the ineffable spiritual experience of union with the Divine."
In a meaningful discussion of this subject, any Westerner must recognize that culture has prejudiced his mind in subtle ways that make difficult the more realistic Eastern view of sex. Honesty, therefore, requires the author to acknowledge cultural bias. His background and culture has not sufficiently prepared him for the concept that sexual intercourse can have spiritual significance. Christian teaching generally denigrates sex, at best as messy business necessary for human propagation, and at worst as sins of the flesh.
The ritualized tantric sexual act, even permitted to monks, involved the quiet union of male and female in an opposite sitting position
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in which, after entry, there is little if any motion, no ejaculation, and the position is sustained for long periods until the male loses his erection. There is thus no orgasm for the male - (Hindu writers never bothered to consider the female) - but there is continued communion of closeness and love. (A very similar practice, known as "karezza" was one of Noyes' directives to the Oneida, New York, utopian community). Since the woman is "consecrated" by ritual, and the man in effect worships her, the activity is essentially sacramental, that is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." The East does not regard sexual orgasm as unworthy, but they do regard it as a primitive use of kundalini power better reserved for the ascent of the kundalini up the spine with attendant siddhis.
Underhill (1930:367)says it well "As enfolded in the darkness with one we love, we obtain a knowledge far more complete than is conferred by the sharpest sight" so "The transcendent is perceived by contact not by vision," This is "to know" in the Biblical sense.
Harding (1966:112)puts the same idea:
There is a corresponding idea in Hindu marriage where the union of husband and wife accompanies, almost produces, a simultaneous union of the god Shiva with his consort, Shakti, on which the continuous creation of the universe depends. She continues quoting the prayer in the Anglican marriage service:
Oh God who has consecrated the state of matrimony to such an excellent mystery that in it is signified and represented the spiritual union betwixt Christ and His Church. She concludes:
From these examples it is obvious that the projection of the animus and anima is of the greatest importance . . . for through it the union of a man and a woman on earth is accompanied by or even brings about the union of the masculine and feminine potencies or principles in heaven.
Tantra teaches a conceptualization of the universe as a fundamental dualism of male and f emale, person-hood and object-hood. The personal element is considered male and is called purusha; the apersonal (female) principle is known as prakriti (nature). The Jaina Sutra declares that atoms are formed by the union of a minute amount of purusha (proton), surrounded by many small parts of prakriti (electrons). Thus in the microcosm we have a model of mutual attraction typified by sexual love at the human level. Accordingly, the union of purusha and prakriti creates the ultimate monad of pure
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consciousness. (Swedenborg says: "Sexual love is the purest energy of the divine state, for lovers in their embrace form one angel.") The tantric view, hence, is that sex is sacred and holy, being a prefiguration of the union of the personal and apersonal elements in the universe, (see Table X), or as a Christian mystic would say "the union of the soul with God."
Tantra is an entire religious philosophy of which sexuality is only a small part. It is also concerned with the release of the kundalini serpent force, which it avers is coiled three and one half times around the lowest chakra center in the genitals. When liberated by suitable techniques (dangerous without a guru), this pranic energy ascends the spinal column, producing psychic heat and siddhisas it passes through each higher chakra center. This upward journey continues until it reaches the highest chakra center in the head (the lotus), which allows the individual to shed his ego and unite with divinity.10
What is really being described here stripped of unconscious male chauvinism and the flowery language of the East is the onward course of the procedures and graces of this chapter of which tantric sex is the initial example. Each of the chakras represents a successive step in this ascent towards the re-integration of duality in the transcendent union of jhana 8 (section 4.84) in which time, space, and personality disappear in a final at-one-ment with divinity which is both transpersonal and trans-a-personal, and in which knowledge transmutes into being. This integration is the converse of the differentiation of creation, for when the All shall perceive the All, the All shall become the All.
Haich (1972:55) in a sensible discussion of these matters, puts the case clearly when she says:
Those who set out on the path of Yoga with the intention of renouncing(i.o.) sexual activity and suddenly want to lead an abstemious life betray that they are not only ignorant of the divine origin of this energy, but even of the energy itself.
Westerners who have been miseducated by cultural denial of the growth-facilitating aspects of sexual activity, need to surmount prejudices and recognize sex as an aspect of development toward self-actualization. For sexual activity, accompanied by love, is of all ordinary acts the one most likely to contribute to the adult's progression to higher stages. Many writers on tantracism, (e.g. Blofeld 1970), while stressing other aspects, do not even mention maithuna(sexual union). But while this omission may be a concession to Western sensibilities, it is significant that even the most exalted mystics speak of their
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union with God in an undeniably sexual vocabulary. Consider the following from St. Marguerite Marie, (Leuba 1925:112-3):
One day as the bridegroom was crushing her by the weight of his love and she was remonstrating, He said: Let me do my pleasure; There is a time for everything. Now I want you to be the plaything of my love, and you must live thus without resistance, surrendered to my desires, allowing me to gratify myself at your expense.
Leuba (1925:143-155) devotes a number of pages to a pejorative examination of alleged Freudian interpretation of such mystic love. It is not surprising that the good professor was offended by such language in his day. But in a time of greater sexual enlightenment it is possible to ask if all this is the mere expression of sexual frustration, or is sexual intercourse the clearest simile of complete and pervasive spiritual union that most mortals understand? If this be true, then the sexual aspect of tantracism is prefiguration of undifferentiated union, and its ecstasy is an earnest of mystic rapture.
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana -5)
4.31 Introduction
If there is one entrance for Western scientific man into the arcana of developmental progress and self-actualization, that entrance is creativity. For it allows him, while still retaining his respectability as a cognitive thinker, to have intuitive brushes with the numinous element through creative outpourings from the preconscious. And it is heuristic, for it prepares him for the mind-expansion into psychedelic realms which inevitably follows. Creativity, therefore, in addition to importance in its own right for the individual, and its social value in products for society, is also the sine qua non for effective syntaxic relationship with the numinous element in the conscious state. Without its discipline, our relationship with the numinous is only found in the altered state of consciousness of the prototaxic or parataxic modes (with the single exception of art, which is a kind of non-verbal creativity). The great importance of this subject is therefore evident; it has concerned scholars such as Guilford, Osborn, Maslow, Jung, Rogers, to name only a few; it has been the subject of our own investigations (1972, 1974), and it deserves careful attention here.
The last section of the parataxic mode was devoted to non-verbal creativity in art. It is fitting that one of the first procedures of the syntaxic mode should be verbal creativity. In this section without
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retracing theory more fully explicated in the Development of the Creative Individual(Gowan, 1972), it is important to make three points in a rather summary fashion:
(1) Creativity is developmental (Gowan, 1972:53-70; Gowan, 1974:48-95): Creativity itself is an emergent and characteristic outcome of the theory of developmental stages. When the requisite degree of mental health is present, creativity is an inevitable outcome of developmental process. Maslow (Anderson, 1968:84) speaks of creativity as a "universal heritage of every human" and one which "covaries with psychological health." The individual who gains mental health as he goes through the developmental process exhibits increasing creativeness. An individual who experiences strain and anxiety evidences diminished creativity.
(2) Creativity represents an intuitive relationship between the conscious ego and the collective preconscious which not only conduces to mental health, but is very desirable for psychedelic progress (Gowan, 1972:60-67; Gowan, 1974:80-95).
While there will be more detailed exploration of this concept in section 4.39 shortly to follow, it may be helpful to say a few words about it here.
Creativity is the intuitive form of psychedelia. Since creativity is the junior cognitive stage, creative production results from leaks (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane) between the preconscious and the conscious. In psychedelic production, doors between the two swing open, and the conscious mind is awed by suddenly finding itself master in a new and vastly enlarged domain.
It should therefore come as no surprise to us that creative people are often psychedelic, and psychedelic people are often creative. The only difference is that frequently the creative person cannot tell you how it happens and the more advanced individual can. Creative people are like children in the enactive stage where "the learning is in the muscles"; they therefore have often adopted a ritual for going into a relaxed state which will induce creativity. Some methods for accomplishing this are detailed elsewhere (Gowan, 1972:ch. 7).
In any hierarchy of developmental process, creativity has its place
(Maslow, 1954:199-259' ), (Erikson 1963:247-274), (Anderson, 1954:84
88, (Jung, Singer 1972:140). Elsewhere (1972:54) we say:
The amount of creativity, other things being equal, is a barometer of one's mental health. Maslow (Anderson, 1959, p. 88)
elaborates this idea further when he says: "The creativity of my subjects seemed to be an epiphenomenon of their greater wholeness and integration, which is what self-actualized implies." It is as (page 279) natural to express creativity under conditions of high mental health as it is for a heated black object to radiate electromagnetic waves. At first there is no emanation, then with increasing temperature there is first heat, then light, and finally ultraviolet rays. Here the increase of temperature corresponds to expanded mental health, and the appearance of electromagnetic waves corresponds to creative production.
Singer (1972:137) notes:
There is a process in which all men are engaged and which is a developmental process. It has been called many names; Jung called it the Way of Individuation. Singer (1972:140) analyzes the individuation process thus:
The individuation process, in the Jungian sense, means the conscious realization and integration of all the possibilities immanent in the individual. It is opposed to any kind of conformity with the collective and, as a therapeutic factor in analytical work, it also demands the rejection of those prefabricated psychic matrices - the conventional attitudes - with which most people would like to live. It offers the possibility that everyone can have his own direction, his special purpose, and it can attach a sense of value to the lives of those who suffer from the feeling that they are unable to measure up to collective norms and collective ideals. To those who are not recognized by the collective, who are rejected and even despised, this process offers the potentiality of restoring faith in themselves. It may give them back their human dignity and assure them of their place in the world.
Jung (1964:xi) states:
Man becomes whole when and only when the process of individuation is complete, when the conscious and the unconscious have learned to live at peace and to complement one another.
(3) Verbal creativity, as distinct from non-verbal creativity, is a most important component in this process. The chief creative virtue of the verbal aspect is that it gives to man (even with the imperfections of language) a kind of calculus for the commencement of the expressing of his relationship to the numinous element syntaxically. This ability of expression, allows for intellectual negotiability of constructs, and therefore, for consensual validation of percepts. If we can test out our thoughts and feelings with others, we gain first in mental health,
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and then in the cognitive ability to categorize, and to discriminate between symbol and object. As Bruner (1966:6) sagely observes of language:
(it) ends up by being not only the medium for exchange but the instrument that the learner can then use himself in bringing about order into the environment.
The capstone of this process is the verbal analogy, a literary proportion which bridges the gulf between two pairs of incommensurables by showing that they have the same ratio.11 This is the start of verbal creativity. The greatest thing (said Aristotle, Poetics:xxiii) "is to be a master of metaphor, since metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarities of the dissimilar." And J.W. N. Sullivan in his biography of Beethoven carried the idea even further: "A great work of art is a new and higher organization of experience."
Lama Govinda (1960:17) points out that since the syntaxic mode embraces the lower modes as well that
... the essential nature of words is neither exhausted by their present meaning nor is their importance confined to their usefulness as transmitters of thought - they express at the same time qualities which are not translatable into concepts. . . .
He concludes that it is precisely this parataxic quality (of the undefined image) in poetry which stirs us so deeply, and concludes:
If art can be called the formal expression of reality, then the creation of language may be called the greatest achievement of art.
But there are further virtues of verbal creativity, if by verbal we adjoin the entire alpha-numeric symbol system. The development of the "if-then" hypothesis, and the Aristotelian syllogism allow for the cognitive exploration of nature in an order which is amenable to measurement and validation. Thus is the scientific method born with its constant swing between intuition and validation, between hypothesis and measurement. This proving ground for creativity in the verbal mode is a necessary condition for any kind of rigorous investigation such as this book embarks on, for otherwise it would become a mere recounting of superstition, or a fearful, halting exploration in a dark cavern without a light.
Considering the individual differences among one's fellows with regard to most aspects of physique or personality, one is immediately struck with the fact that (a) the variance is real and (page 281) (b) its magnitude is ordinarily measured in percentages. Henry may be 20 percent taller than Edward, 30 percent heavier than Jack, and 25 percent brighter than Clyde; but he is unlikely to be twice as tall, as heavy, or as bright as anyone else.
Surprisingly enough this situation does not hold in regard to creativity. On any kind of creative scale used (and creative production of adults is as reliable as any), some individuals are found whose creative production exceeds that of their fellows, not by percentages, or even simple magnitudes; but it is more likely ten, fifty, or a hundred times as great. Obviously these fortunately creative persons are not that much different. Something has happened to turn them on. Creativity is a "threshold" variable. The nature of what that "something" is - the analysis of that threshold - is the task of this chapter.
Of all the powers of man, that of creativity seems unique. The generally accepted custom among the ancients was to ascribe divine origin, inspiration, or direction to any great creative work so that the poet became the prophet. Even the aspects of initiation and selection, which are universally found in creative function, appear somewhat mysterious, and many of our greater artists and scientists seem to receive inspiration rather than to develop it.
To create, mind must withdraw upon itself for a time to focus its forces and then project an image of itself onto an external medium. Psychologically this introspection and focusing takes the form of heightened awareness of the peripheral asymmetries of a situation and a subtle settling into consciousness of concepts at the boundaries of rationality or in the preconscious. This is the incubation period in the famous Wallas explication of the four components of creative process: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. It is understandable then that the hour of creation is a "tender time" when man wishes to draw apart from his fellows, whether up the mountain, into the desert, or away to his closet, but always into a solitary silence. Creative withdrawal and return, as Toynbee has pointed out, is a characteristic of creative acts of groups as well as of individuals.
Because creativity is a word which has recently been taken over by psychology from religion, it is almost impossible to discover it in a dictionary more than a decade old. It is still a new concept, recently attributed to the personality of man, and still to some fraught with mystical connotations. For this reason, care should be taken in defining it and in distinguishing it from other mental functions, as well as to note its possible varieties.
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Hallman (1963, pp, 18-19) gave a comprehensive definition:
... the creative act can be analyzed into five major components: (1) it is a whole act, a unitary instance of behavior;
(2) it terminates in the production of objects or of forms of living which are distinctive;
(3) it evolves out of certain mental processes;
(4) it co-varies with specific personality transformations; and
(5) it occurs within a particular kind of environment. A demonstration of the necessary features of each of these factors can employ both descriptive and logical procedures; it can refer to the relevance of empirical evidence, and can infer what grounds are logically necessary in order to explain certain facts.12 Following this introduction (1), we enumerate the powers and virtues of verbal creativity (2), then discuss five theories about creativity, as cognitive, rational and semantic (3), as personal and environmental (4), as psychological openness (5), as mediated by the preconscious (6), as evidence of mental health and self-actualization (7). Two final sections concern creative organization, especially general systems theory, and the conclusion.
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity
As we have seen in the previous chapter, non-verbal creativity comes to its highest outlet in art, in the parataxic mode. But there is a further explication of creativity in the syntaxic mode, namely verbal creativity, which is less intuitive and more cognitive in that the connotation and signification becomes categorical. Or to put it another way, the symbol, which was an image in the parataxic mode, now becomes a component of language in the syntaxic, so that what was formerly ill-defined and susceptible of several meanings, now becomes clear and definite, with only one meaning.
This clarification of the image, as a zoom lens clarifies an object in an optical field, is part of the process of differentiation. It differentiates first between symbol and object referent, between a map of and the experience of reality. This clarification helps the cause of truth, for it allows us to specify with far more precision the exact properties and characteristics of nature. It reaches its zenith in the language of mathematics, which is the most precise tool of all.
While the symbol separates man from reality, it is a necessary aspect of knowing reality with the conscious mind. For symbolization of reality seems to be a necessary stage of development in the mind, and the increasing order which mathematics and science find in the universe appear to be examples of this congruence between the human mind and the constitution of the universe. Some mathematical illustrations would include:
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epii + 1 = 0, e = mc2, and lg lg 10 (approx.=) sq. rt. 3
Ernst Cassirer, in An Essay on Man (Hayakawa 1953:131), says:13
. . . man lives in a symbolic universe. . . . No longer can man confront reality immediately; he cannot see it, as it were face-to-face.... He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms ... that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of this artificial medium.
According to Hayakawa "human beings live in a 'semantic environment,' which is the creation of their symbol system." Edward Sapir went so far as to claim (Pearce 1969:4)
. . . the real world is to a large extent built up on the language habits of the group.
To say that a symbol belongs to a system of representation is to say that it is "governed by certain rules of signification" (Nagendra 1972:136)
Of all the known systems of representation, language has the most clear-cut and definite rules of signification . . .
The mathematical language is the most definite and clear-cut of all languages (Nagendra 1972:136) notes:
The mathematical language is only a refined version of verbal symbolism.
The symbol is, as Susanne Langer says, the basic instrument of thought. Thought is a shaping force in reality. It has been noted that our minds screen out far more than we accept; we would live in a chaotic world if this was not so. Of "symbolization---as a universal process" Mukerjee sees it as "the generic creative process of Communication that makes man's life an endless quest." He says (Mukerjee 1959:19):
The study of symbol and the symbolic process provides not only the central frame of reference for the functional analysis of society, but also a new starting point of Philosophy, freed from the Cartesian dualism of matter and spirit, inner and outer world.. . The symbol, both psychologically and epistemologically considered is not merely a mental construct but also a dynamic synthesis of self and its universe. Symbol, then, as Mukerjee concludes, "not only gives us a (page 284) representation of the process ... it enables us to share in or to live in retrospect the experience of the process. It is this ability to be the process and the result of the process which has caused great confusion in trying to analyze ritual's nature. Being the process and the source of the process has also been the source of its power."
And so we have seen the symbol is a "bridging process," bridging the gap between outer existence (the world) and inner meaning. He who understands symbol participates in this bridging process and as Eliade states (Eliade 1959:103):
not only "opens out" to the objective world, but at the same time succeeds in emerging from his particular situation and in attaining a comprehension of the universal. This is explained by the fact that symbols have a way of causing immediate reality, as well as particular situations, to "burst."
Symbols also possess three enormous consequences, according to Bertalanffy (Kepes 1966:275):
"1) They replace biology with history;
2) They replace trial and error by reasoning, and
3) They make purposiveness possible."
Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir, Susanne Langer, and Ernst Cassirer believe that thought and language are not independent processes. The traditional idea that thought comes first to be followed later by a linguistic formulation of that thought is no longer a prevalent one. The process of transforming all direct experience into language, that supreme mode of symbolic expression, (Lee 1949:7), to quote Susanne Langer in her essay "The Phenomenon of Language"
. . . has so completely taken possession of the human mind that it is not only a special talent but a dominant, organic need.
Langer sees in this all-important craving for expression the source of his powers and his weaknesses (Lee 1949:8).
The special power of man's mind rests on the evolution of this special activity ...... his primitive mental function is not judging reality, but dreaming his desires. ... man has a constant and crying need of expression. What he cannot express, he cannot conceive; what he cannot conceive is chaos and fills him with terror.
To Susanne Langer this process of symbolic transformation which all our experiences undergo (Lee 1949:8): (page 285)
... is nothing more nor less than the process of conception, which underlies the human faculties of abstraction and imagination....
Language is the highest and most amazing achievement of the symbolistic human mind. The power it bestows is almost inestimable.
Both Cassirer and Langer conclude that names or naming are the essence of language. Cassirer in Language and A View of the World (Lee 1949:259) says:
Without the help of the name every new advance made in the process of objectification would always run the risk of being lost again in the next moment.
Language is necessary and must be predictable if we are to function comfortably in this world.
According to Pearce (1969:143):
Speech serves no adaptive purpose ... yet speech was developed by life, and its purpose can be understood from its real function, a function long championed by Langer.... It was a part of the development of a system of logical choice, of value judgment, and of projected symbol-making, through which new possibilities for reality could be consciously directed.
The creation of language, the facility whereby we communicate with our world and those in it, is according to Pearce, a case of the "cause of the need" becoming the "cause of the fulfillment of the need." Language is the means by which we become comfortable in our world. It is through language that we name our world, and through naming our world we create the world that we name.
As Fischer 1974:32 reminds us:
Symbols are capable of revealing a modality of the "real" or a condition of the World which is not evident on the plane of immediate experience. Symbols, . . . point beyond themselves and open up levels of reality which otherwise are closed. In this sense symbols have a sacred, religious quality. A man who understands a symbol not only "opens himself" to the objective world, but at the same time succeeds in emerging from his personal situation and reaching a comprehension of the universal.
Before leaving verbal creativity, there is another and very different benefit to be noted. One of the difficulties that many persons have with efforts to become creative is that such efforts seem to destroy
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their organizational posture. The effort to relax enough to be non-verbally creative seems to interfere with the time-competence, and other responsible aspects of being "organized." The notorious difficulties that artists have of dealing with mundane ego-tasks is well known. But as creativity becomes less affective and more cognitive, less parataxic and more syntaxic, less non-verbal and more verbal, it appears gradually to come free of this difficulty, so that in the higher reaches of verbal creativity (such as general semantics, general systems theory, or higher mathematics) one may simultaneously find high structure and high creativity.
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic14
Attention may now be given to an extremely important group of researchers who have regarded creativity in the main as little else than problem solving. It is a form of rational thought which connects things, which combines parts into new wholes and which (like Sherlock Holmes) performs seeming miracles through observation, insight, and meaningful analysis of semantic elements.
Hallman (1963) calls this condition connectedness and says that it imposes on man
. . . the need to create by bringing already existing elements into a distinctive relation to each other. The essence of human creativeness is relational, and an analysis of its nature must refer to the connectedness of whatever elements enter into the creative relationship. The analysis must demonstrate that though man does not create the components, he can nevertheless produce new connections among them. It must prove that these connections are genuinely original and not simply mechanical. Logically, this means that connectedness comprises relationships which are neither symmetrical nor transitive; that is, the newly created connections as wholes are not equivalent to the parts being connected. Neither side of the equation validly implies the other, for the relationship is neither inferential nor causal; rather, it is metaphoric and transformational.
Hallman (1963) calls the roll of some of the writers who have called attention to this aspect of creative performance as follows: Bruner (1962) who states that creativity grows out of combinational activity; Taylor (1964) who points to new organizational patterns; Murray (Anderson, 1959, p. 96 ff.) who finds a compositional process; Ghiselin (1952) who abstracts a new constellation of meanings. Creativity has also been considered as resulting from particular types of logical thought. This was indeed the view of Osborn (1953) in Applied Imagination, and the problem-solving methods he espoused.
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These go back to Dewey (1910), Rossman (1931), and Wallas (1926) and are found in the practice of the Buffalo Creative Problem-Solving Workshop15 which Osborn founded and which is carried on by his protege, Parnes (Gowan, Demos and Torrance, 1967, pp. 32f43). Edwards (1968) has supplied us with a survey of creative problem-solving courses.
While factor analysts did not discover creativity in the factors of intellect until Guilford's "Structure of Intellect," others were making earlier appraisals of creative process which separated it from intelligence. Some of these efforts tended to equate creativity with problem solving.
Dewey (1910) offered an initial attempt at a problem-solving model for creativity by suggesting the following steps:
(1) awareness that a problem exists;
(2) analysis of the problem;
(3) an understanding of the nature of the problem;
(4) suggestions for possible solutions; and
(5) testing the alternative solutions and accepting or rejecting them.
Wallas (1926) suggested a somewhat similar model, but with more attempt to account for preconscious aspects:
(1) preparation (assembling the information, a long rational process);
(2) incubation (temporary relaxation, play, or turning the matter over to the preconscious);
(3) inspiration (a brief moment of insight); and
(4) evaluation (elaboration and testing of the completed process or product).
Rossman (1931) noted that an inventor goes through a similar process and decided on seven steps:
(1) observed needs;
(2) formulation of problem;
(3) available information collected;
(4) solution formulated;
(5) solutions examined critically;
(6) new ideas formulated; and
(7) new ideas tested.
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental16
The trait and environment theories about creativity have long received considerable attention. There are three main areas of interest:
a. Creativity as a personality correlate, especially of originality, energy, humor, and high self-concept;
b. Creativity as a result of environment, especially parental rearing practice;
c. Creativity as a concomitant of age and stage and other auxiliary variables.
Creativity as a personality correlate has received the main attention. Hallman (1963), in his definitive review, says:
For example, a large body of evidence has accumulated in connection with the effort to identify the particular personality
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traits which make for creativity. The assumption is that the creative process can be fully accounted for by providing an exhaustive list of such traits.... Fromm speaks of four traits: capacity to be puzzled, ability to concentrate, capacity to accept conflict, and willingness to be reborn every day (1959). Rogers has a similar list: openness to experience, internal locus of evaluation, and ability to toy with elements (1959). Maslow has perhaps the most extensive list (1962); the creative personality, he says, is spontaneous, expressive, effortless, innocent, unfrightened by the unknown or ambiguous, able to accept tentativeness and uncertainty, able to tolerate bipolarity, able to integrate opposites. The creative person is the healthy, self-actualizing person Maslow believes. Others who have identified creative traits are Barron (1963), Meier (1939), Whiting (1958), Angyal (1956), Mooney (1956), Lowenfeld (1958), and Hilgard (1959).
Weisberg and Springer (Mooney and Razik, 1967) chose 50 of the most creative and gifted children out of 4000 in the Cincinnati schools and gave them tests and interviews. The five highest judgment categories (all significant at the 5 percent level) following the interview were (1) strength of self-image, (2) ease of early recall, (3) humor, (4) availability of oedipal anxiety and (5) uneven ego development.
Welsh (1967) used an adjective check list on Governor's School students which indicated that high creative adolescents are independent, nonconforming individuals who have change and variety in environment and also have active heterosexual interests.
Whelan (1965) used a theoretical key of seven scales with the following correlations with creativity:
a. energy (r = .67): few illnesses, avid reader, early physical development, good grades, active in organizations
b. autonomy (r = .60): values privacy, independent, early to leave home
C. confidence (r = .68)
d. openness to new experience (r = .37)
e. preference for complexity (r = .13)
f. lack of close emotional ties (r = .30)
g. permissive value structure (r = .67).
Dellas and Gaier (1970) reviewed creativity research on five variables: (1) intellectual factors, (2) intelligence, (3) personality, (4) potential creativity and (5) motivational characteristics. Creative persons appear more distinguished by interests, attitudes, and drives rather than high intelligence. Creativity seems to be a synergic effect involving cognitive style, openness, and other personality variables.
Neither permissiveness, overindulgence, nor a great deal of love
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in the home appears to stimulate creative performance as had, in some quarters, been alleged; but a good deal of parental interaction with children, plus authoritative (not authoritarian) behavior on the part of the parents, appears helpful. The mixed results make it appear that parental rearing practices and other environmental influences are not central in producing creative persons, at least not so much so as individual personality dynamics. Some research results follow.
There have been a number of doctoral dissertations focusing on relationships between home environment and personality factors on the one hand and creativity on the other. Abdel-Salan (1963) found the male adolescent creative, self-sufficient, alternately lax and exacting and a trusting, adaptable, surgent, easy-going cyclotheme. Ellinger (1964) obtained a correlation of .6 between creativity and home environment for 450 fourth graders. Parents of creative children were more involved in activities, read more to children, went more often out to the library and used less physical punishment. Orinstein (1961), using the PARI, found maternal restrictiveness correlated .4 with low vocabulary, but neither permissiveness nor loving attitude correlated with creativity. Pankove (1966) found a positive relationship between creativity and risk-taking boys.
Arasteh (1968) concluded, after a careful survey of creativity in young children, that a loving, authoritative but somewhat permissive family structure was more productive of creative children than an autocratic or inflexible one.
Torrance (1969), in reporting intercultural research in which the author also participated (Gowan and Torrance, 1963), found strong relationships between cultural environment and creative index.
Research in which the author participated (Gowan and Torrance, 1965; Torrance, Gowan, Wu, and Aliotti, 1970) indicates that in cross cultural studies of creative performance in children, strain is put upon the child with resultant reduction in creativity by bilingualism at home or school.
Datta and Parloff (1967) attempted to determine the kind of family in which the creative individual is likely to develop. Previous studies indicated that the relevant dimension is autonomy control. Both creative scientists and their less creative controls described parents as moderately affectionate, nonrejecting and encouraging. The creatives were more likely to perceive parents as providing a "no rules" situation in which their integrity, autonomy, and responsibility were taken for granted.
A third area, that of age and stage aspects of creativity, was also researched. The effects of age on creativity have been studied in superior adults by Botwinick (1967) and by Lehman (Botwinick, 1967; Lehman, 1953, 1960). Their findings generally agree that creativity
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is more often found in younger individuals, and that young men in their twenties are especially apt to be highly innovative in science. A somewhat later apex is found for the behavioral sciences, but the peak of creative performance seems passed by the age of forty. Similar results had been reported earlier by Bjorkstem (1946).
Hallman (1963) in his definitive review says:
Another body of data has been collected to prove that creativity can be fully explained as a series of chronological stages, each stage of which makes its unique contribution to the total process. Wallas (1926) provides the classical statement of this position, and he has been followed by Patrick (1937) and Spender (1946) in connections with creativeness in poetry; Hadamard (1954) and Poincare (1913) in mathematics; Arnold (1959), Patrick and Montmasson (1931) in science. Others who define creativity in terms of serial stages are Chiselin (1952), Vinacke (1952), and Hutchinson (1949).
In conclusion to creativity as personal and environmental, we should briefly notice two research approaches: measurement and biographical indices.
Regarding measurement, Rossman and Horn (1973) in an extensive factor analysis concluded that it is useful to regard creativity and intelligence as the outgrowth of distinct though overlapping influences, with creativity having definite personality aspects. Cropley (1972) in a five-year longitudinal study found predictive validity for the Torrance Creativity tests, a result which has recently been established by Torrance himself. Philipp (1967) in a doctoral study determined that creativity is a specific and not generalized factor.
Regarding biographical approaches, Schaefer (1970), Anastasi and Schaefer, (1969) developed a 165-item biographical inventory on high school students with separate keys for boys and girls. The Biographical Inventory correlated with judged creativity at r's between .35 and .55. Taylor at the Institute for Behavioral Research in Creativity at Salt Lake City has developed the Alpha Biographical Inventory for Creativity which has had considerable vogue. Malone (1974) in doctoral research, using a new, powerful computer program CHAROSEL, developed a similar biographical method for disadvantaged gifted children.40
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4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness
4.351 General
Ever since the development of the construct of creativity in the 1950's, and despite the views of its early exponents, such as Guilford
and Osborn, there has been a steady movement away from the concept of creativity as essentially problem-solving in favor of the hypothesis that creativity represents some kind of psychological openness. A growing and prestigious group of researchers, Including Jung (Arieti 1967), Maslow (1954), and Rogers (1959), to name only three, associate creative functioning with openness to interior and exterior experience brought on by good mental health, an anti-authoritarian style of living, and general flexibility. Maslow's concepts of spontaneity, autonomy, democratic (anti-authoritarian) character structure and creativity found in self-actualizing people is a good example. Another is Roger's (1959) "openness to experience," "an internal locus of evaluation," and "the ability to toy with concepts." Schactel (1959) speaks of the quality of the encounter which develops into creative performance as primarily one of openness. Schulman (1966) also found openness of perception necessary for creative functioning.
Hallman (1963), in his thorough review, also names openness and says:
It designates those characteristics of the environment, both the inner and the outer, the personal and the social, which facilitates the creative person's moving from the actual state of affairs which he is in at a given time, toward solutions which are only possible and as yet undetermined. These conditions, or traits, include sensitivity, tolerance of ambiguity, self-acceptance, and spontaneity. Since these are passively rather than actively engaged in the creative process, this criterion may be explained logically within the category of possibility. But again, the psychological meaning of this category may best be expressed under the concept of deferment, as distinguished, for example, from closure; of postponement as distinguished from predetermined solutions.
Openness can be described in twelve aspects, all mentioned by Maslow (1954), as characteristic of his group of self-actualized people. The first four aspects are also noted by Hallman.
(1) Problem sensitivity refers to the ability to sense things as they might be reassembled, to a discrepancy, an aperture or a hiatus. It involves a particular kind of openness which divines that things are not quite what they seem. Hallman cites Angyal (1956), Fromm (1959), Guilford (1967), Greenacre (1957), Hilgard (1959), Lowenfeld (1958), Mooney (1956), and Stein (1953) as witnesses for the importance of problem sensitivity in creative performance.
(2) Ability to tolerate ambiguity is another aspect widely noted. Hallman (1963) characterizes it as "the ability to accept conflict and
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tension resulting from polarity (Fromm, 1959), to tolerate inconsistencies and contradictions (Maslow, 1963), to accept the unknown, and be comfortable with the ambiguous, approximate, and uncertain." He names Hart (1950), Wilson (1954), and Zilboorg (1959) as holding similar views. The ability to tolerate ambiguity appears also related with two other aspects. One is the ability to toy with ideas, rather playfully rearranging them into different forms. The other is preference for complexity, found by Barron (1963) in his study of artists.
(3) Internalized locus of evaluation is a Rogerian phrase for what Hallman calls a sense of destiny and personal worth which internalizes the value system so that it is not dependent upon cultural mores. This personal autonomy, also named by Maslow (1954) as characteristic of self-actualized people is really the opposite of authoritarian tendencies. The development of autonomy in young adults has been found to be negatively correlated with authoritarianism. Benton (1967), in a doctoral thesis, found openness (opposite of authoritarianism) to be predictive of creativity among students. An interesting sidelight of this aspect is the resultant philosophical, unhostile sense of humor, so characteristic of creative people, and found by Maslow as one of the qualities of his self-actualized group.
(4) Spontaneity is a quality used by both Hallman and Maslow to describe openness and creativity. It involves more isomorphic and comfortable relations with reality, so that one experiences life directly and "openly," not as if through a darkened glass. There is an appreciation and wonderment toward life, a childlike awe and admiration of that which is mysterious about the universe, blending into a mystic or oceanic feeling. All of these are qualities named by Maslow about his self-actualized people. "Scientific genius," said Poincare, "is the capacity to be surprised."
Finally, while still on the mental health aspect of creativity, the considerable testimony should be noted for creativity as at least a two-stage process as one ascends the mental health scale.
Hallman (1963), in his definitive review, has this to say:
A third cluster of evidence surrounds the definition that creative activity involves an interchange of energy among vertical layers of psychological systems. Creativeness consists in a shift of psychic levels. Most writers identify two psychological levels and refer to them variously as the primary- secondary processes, the autistic and reality adjusted, unconscious mechanisms and conscious deliberation, free and bound energies, gestalt-free and articulating tendencies. These writers include Freud, Ehrenzweig (1953), and Schneider (1950). Maslow (1959) adds to these two levels a third one called integration. (page 293) Another who believes in two levels of creativity is Taft (1970), who states:
There are two styles of creativity; one a measured, problem-solving approach, and the other an emotional and comparatively uncontrolled free expression.17
Taft believes that this dichotomy stems from the distinction made between primary and secondary processes by Freud. The primary process creativity (or "hot" creativity) occurs in the preconscious, and the secondary process (or "cold" creativity) requires more controls and less fantasy expression, such as scientific investigation, for example.
And Ghiselin (Taylor and Barron, 1963:42) tells us that:
It is reasonable to say that there are two levels of creativity, one higher and one lower, one primary and one secondary, one major and one minor. Creative action of the lower, secondary sort gives further development to an established body of meaning through initiating some advance in its use. . . Creative action of the higher, primary sort alters the universe of meaning itself, by introducing into it some new element of meaning or some new order of significance, or, more commonly, both.
By this time, the reader may well ask "What is it that the mind is open to in this second level of creative insight?" This question deserves a careful answer. In an effort to document that answer, we shall consider four examples of openness: (a) openness under hypnosis, (b) openness under drugs, (c) openness to ESP, and (d) openness to dreams, in the remainder of this section. In the next, we shall then be able to formulate a theory about the preconscious mechanism by which creativity is produced.
If you met a group of new people at one party and several days later on a completely different occasion, you again ran into the same group, you would suspect some connection between the two events, some common organizer. It is thus rather interesting that in a study of creative openness we have again run into some prototaxic and parataxic procedures which we studied in earlier chapters.
4.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis
It seems evident from the research that under some conditions creativity is facilitated by hypnosis. Krippner (1972) documented some examples of this kind, including the McCord and Sherrill (1961) report of a mathematics professor whose speed in solving difficult problems was speeded up about six times. P. Bowers (1967) found that hypnosis improved performance on the remote consequences test at p = .001;
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the effect appearing to be due to reduced defensiveness. K. Bowers (1968) got no significant results in a creativity task between groups of hypnotized and hypnotically simulating groups. In a more complicated 2 X 3 research design K. Bowers and van der Meulen (1970) found hypnotically susceptible significantly more creative than hypnotically unsusceptible subjects; women also tended to be more creative under hypnosis than men. In a further study, K. Bowers (1970) found relationships between creativity, hypnotic susceptibility, and trancelike experiences for women, but not for men. He suggested that imagination in women is more stimulus incited, whereas in men it is more impulse incited.
The definitive review of research in this area is that of Bowers and Bowers (Fromm and Shor, 1972:235-290). In addition to having done a good bit of it themselves, the Bowers' deny the behavioristic bias in making hypersuggestibility the defining feature of hypnosis, and argue that trance and subjective experience of the individual under hypnosis has a real place in research on the subject. Calling the "generalized reality orientation" the GRO (or the OSC in our terms), they point out that there are many conditions besides hypnosis when the GRO fades away, and some of them have to do with fantasy and the relaxed reverie which precedes the insight stage of creative performance.
Bowers and Bowers (Fromm and Shor, 1972(283) conclude after a review of their research and others that unrealistic and fantasy experiences:
a. are concomitants of various ASC's including hypnosis,
b. occur more in subjects high in hypnotic susceptibility,
c. may occasionally occur in a creative act, but are
d. often experienced by creative subjects in more flexible shifting from one level of functioning to another.
They believe that creativity involves regression to "passively experienced fantasy and then progression to integration of fantasy with reality." They cite both Krippner (1968) and Silverman (1968) as noting similarities between ASC's and the inspirational stage of creativity. They conclude: "A relationship between hypnosis and creativity does seem probable, but the precise nature of this link is far from clear."
Bowers and Bowers (lbid:271) suggest that there is an "oscillating relationship between focused attention and fantasy which is an important condition of the adaptive regression which underlies creativity." They cite the literature on eye movements which suggests (lbid:274) that "eye movement is usually reduced under conditions of uncritical, undirected thinking characteristic of hypnosis and
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creativity." Ability to "tolerate unusual experiences" upon loss of the GRO correlates "about as high with hypnotic susceptibility as any other measure" (lbid:277). This is also a characteristic of fantasy. The creative person seems to have become able to retrieve through the oscillating procedure, those aspects of fantasy which help him to creative performance. In other words, both hypnosis and creativity have a common base in easy slippage from the GRO into fantasy. But as Bowers and Bowers (Ibid:291) conclude: whereas "conventional reality is relatively unimportant for the hypnotized person," it is vital to the creative individual for "it is the stuff that creative imagination transforms."
McHenry and Shouksmith (1970) describe an experiment in which 147 ten year olds were tested for their creative ability. Results showed that when placed in a situation exposed to the suggestion of peers, the highly creative children were very open to suggestion, but subjects high on visual imagination were not. The researchers then concluded that creative children are more suggestible.
4.353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs18
There have been many highly creative persons who have used consciousness-altering drugs (e.g., opium, alcohol, LSD, hashish), though one can only - at this time - speculate as to whether or not any of these drugs increased their creativity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poet and philosopher, habitually used a preparation of opium. Charles Baudelaire, a nineteenth century writer, lavishly described his sensations after eating hashish. William James (1902), the famous psychologist and philosopher, tried using nitrous oxide - commonly known as laughing gas - to "stimulate the mystical consciousness." Aldous Huxley, the novelist and essayist, took mescaline and LSD on frequent occasions. Even Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, ingested cocaine for several years and recommended it highly.
"In recent years, psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs have often been used for creative purposes. In 1965, the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond and the architect Kyo Izumi announced that they had designed a new mental hospital with the aid of psychedelic drugs. Izumi (1968) took LSD when he visited traditionally designed mental hospitals to determine their effects upon persons in altered states of consciousness. In this condition, the long corridors and pale colors appeared bizarre and frightening to him; the corridor "seemed infinite, and it seemed as if I would never get to the end of it." He and Osmond assumed that the hospital would look similarly unpleasant to the mental patients. As a result of Izumi's experiences, he and Osmond designed a decentralized series of unimposing buildings with pleasant colors and no corridors.
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"Barron (1963)administered psilocybin to several highly creative persons and recorded their impressions. For example, one of Barron's subjects, a composer, writes, "Every corner is alive in a silent intimacy." Barron concluded, "What psilocybin does is to ... dissolve many definitions and ... melt many boundaries, permit greater intensities or more extreme values of experience to occur in many dimensions." However, some of the artists in Barron's study were wildly enthusiastic about their seemingly increased sensitivity during drug experience, but later when the effects of the drug wore off, they found that the artistic work they produced had little artistic merit. For instance, a painter recalled, "I have seldom known such absolute identification with what I was doing - nor such a lack of concern with it afterwards." It appears that an artist is not necessarily able to evaluate his psychedelically-inspired work while he is under the influence of the drug.
4.354 The Role of Extrasensory Perception in Creativity19
Aside from the possibility that extrasensory perception (ESP) may have played a part in some of the creative dreams just described, there have in general been many unusual and puzzling creative achievements in which ESP may have played a role.
When Igor Sikorsky was ten years of age, he dreamed of coursing the skies in the softly lit, walnut-paneled cabin of an enormous flying machine. Sikorsky later became an eminent aircraft designer and inventor of the helicopter. Three decades after the dream, he went aboard one of his own four- engine clippers to inspect a job of interior decorating done by Pan American Airways. With a start, he recognized the cabin as identical to the one in his boyhood dream.
Max Planck, the physicist, first spoke of his "constant" when he was twenty-three years of age; however, he did not understand its implications for wave theory until much later. Indeed, he had to convince himself of its correctness; it varied so greatly from the logic of his time that he could not comprehend it when the idea first came to him.
Perhaps one of the most interesting cases of this kind is that of Michael Faraday (cited by Koestler, 1963), one of the greatest physicists of all time. Faraday was a visionary even in a literal sense. He "saw" the stresses surrounding magnets and electric currents as "curves of force in space," which he called "lines of forces." He visualized the universe as patterned by narrow curved tubes through which all forms of "ray-vibrations" or energy-radiations are propagated. This vision of curved tubes which "rose up before him like things" led him to the ideas of the dynamo and the electric motor. It also made him discard the concept of the ether and to postulate that light is electromagnetic radiation. Did Faraday enter these new realities
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through his imagination, or was he also assisted by ESP?
The case of Jonathan Swift (cited by Haefele, 1962), the writer of Gulliver's Travels and other novels, combines artistic and scientific creativity. When Gulliver reaches Laputa, the astronomers state that the planet Mars has two moons quite close to the planet. One completed its orbit every ten hours, the other every 21.5 hours. It took astronomers in ordinary reality 150 years to discover that Mars did, indeed, have two moons which completed their orbits around the planet every eight and every 30 hours.
A final instance of the possible association between ESP and creativity concerns Futility,a popular novel written by Morgan Robertson in 1898. It described the wreck of a giant ship called the Titan. This ship was considered "unsinkable" by the characters in the novel; it displaced 70,000 tons, was 800 feet long, had 24 lifeboats, and carried 3,000 passengers. Its engines were equipped with three propellers. One night in April, while proceeding at 25 knots, the Titan encountered an iceberg in the fog and sank with great loss of life.
On April 15, 1912, the Titanic was wrecked in a disaster which echoed the events portrayed in the novel 14 years previously. The Titanic displaced 66,000 tons and was 828 feet long, It had three propellers and was proceeding at 23 knots on its maiden voyage, carrying nearly 3,000 passengers. There was great loss of life because the Titanic was equipped with only 20 lifeboats.
Thus, the role played by ESP in creativity demands further study. Anderson (1962) is convinced that the association exists because both ESP and creativity have their roots in deep, unconscious levels of the psyche. She concludes that creativity "by a process of purely conscious calculation seems never to occur. Scrutiny of the conscious scene for the creative end never reveals it; it is never there."
Dreistadt (1972) attempted to relate the prophetic nature of genius with precognition, theorizing that there was either telepathy or clairvoyance in the nature of some of their discoveries. Pang and Fort (1967) in a small study got some evidence of the relation between creativity and ESP.
Honorton (1967) in exploring the relationship between creativity and ESP, found a highly significant difference on precognitive runs between the high creativity subjects and the low ones.
4.355 Dreams and Creativity20
There is considerable testimony on the fact that creativity is closely related to dreams, and some of it is spectacular. Domino (1970) has found more primary process material and more symbolism in the dreams of creative high school males than in controls. Krippner and Hughes (1971) concluded that "dreaming and creative process are related."
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There are many people who can testify to the usefulness of dreams in the creative production of daily life. Kilton Stewart (Tart, 1969:15968) tells how the Senoi, a Malayan tribe, use dreams to promote mental health, and gain control over the preconscious. Following Stewart's example, Alden Flagg (personal communication) of New York Society of General Semantics, programs his sleep so that he will dream solutions to daily problems. Eileen Garrett (1968:135) tells of much the same thing: "I give my consciousness the task of finding the answer while I sleep, and in the morning at the threshold of awakening, I find the information I sought." Many creative people have learned this trick of using dreams.
But the best and most complete summary of the use of dreams for discoveries and inventions by scientists is by Krippner (1972): "Scientists, philosophers, and inventors also have creative dreams and use the content of these dreams either literally (directly) or analogically (symbolically) in their creative work." (It will be recalled that artists, musicians, and writers generally used the content in a literal manner.)
Herman V. Hilprecht (cited by Woods, 1947:525-530) attempted to decipher two small fragments of agate which were believed to belong to the finger rings of a Babylonian, and had cuneiform writing on them of the Cassite period in Babylonian history. After midnight he was weary and exhausted, went to sleep, and dreamed the following:
A tall thin priest of old pre-Christian Nippur, about forty years of age and clad in a simple abba, led me to the treasure chamber of the temple ... He addressed me as follows: "The two fragments which you have published separately on pages 22 and 26, belong together, are not finger rings and their history is as follows: King Kurigalzu (Ca. 1300 B.C.) once sent to the temple of Bel ... an inscribed votive cylinder of agate. Then we priests suddenly received the command to make for the statue of the god Ninib a pair of earrings of agate. We were in a great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at hand. In order to execute the command there was nothing for us to do but cut the votive cylinder into three parts, thus making three rings, each of which contained a portion of the original inscription. The first two rings served as earrings for the statue of the god; the two fragments which have given you so much trouble are portions of them. If you will put the two together you will have confirmation of my words. But the third ring you have not found in the course of your excavations and you never will find it." With this the priest disappeared. I woke up . . .
Hilprecht later verified this interpretation by actually putting the
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fragments together at the Imperial Museum of Constantinople, thereby showing that they had once belonged to one and the same votive cylinder.
In his creative drearn Hilprecht combined identically shaped "rings" (association by similarity) and thereby reconstructed the votive cylinder. He also combined other bits of information that agreed with this reconstruction. All this represents a process of consolidation. Hilprecht's dream thus integrated a great deal of material, but by synthesizing the material correctly the dream also gave him a picture of a non-ordinary reality - a past reality. It is conceivable, too, that Hilprecht's close contact with the "rings" helped give him imagery of the past events he saw in his dream in the same manner as the touch of an object purportedly gives a psychic paragnost accurate imagery of the past history of the object.
The naturalist Louis Agassiz (cited by Krippner and Hughes, 1970),attempted to transfer the image of a fossilized fish from a stone but found the image too blurred. He gave up the project only to dream a few nights later of an entire fossilized fish. He hurried to the laboratory the next morning, but the image was as obscure as before. The dream returned the next night. When he examined the slab the next morning, the vague image appeared unchanged. Hoping to have the dream a third time, Agassiz put a pencil and paper by his bed. The dream returned and he drew the image. The next morning when he looked at what he had drawn, he was surprised that he had produced so many details in total darkness. He returned to his laboratory and used the drawing as a guide to chisel the slab. When the stone layer fell away, Agassiz found the fossil in excellent condition and identical to the image he had seen in his dream.
Agassiz' creative dream of the fossilized fish may have been induced by having perceived unconsciously a clue in the stone slab which he had ignored while awake. If so, the dream could have emphasized and drawn his attention to stimuli he had perceived subliminally while he was awake. Perhaps Agassiz also perceived the fossil fish clairvoyantly by extrasensory perception (e.g., Krippner, 1963). If this is true, subliminal perception and extrasensory perception helped Agassiz experience non-ordinary reality which quickly turned into ordinary reality once the slab was cut.
The creative dreams of Hilprecht and Agassiz gave the solution to a problem literally or directly. One can cite as well creative dreams of scientists and inventors that gave the solution of a problem analogically or symbolically.
The chemist Friedrich August Kekule (cited by Koestler, 1964:118),had a tendency to make theoretical discoveries in hypnagogic reverie states. Kekule wrote:
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I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gambolling before my eyes. The smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by visions of this kind, could now distinguish larger structures, of manifold conformations; long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together, all twining and twisting in snakelike motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke.
The dream image of a snake holding its tail in its mouth led Kekule by analogy to his discovery that Benzene has a ringlike structure (usually represented by a hexagon) and to his "closed-chain" or "ring" theory which showed the importance of molecular structure in organic chemistry. The imagery granted Kekule a glimpse into a non-ordinary reality of molecular structure. In 1869, D. I. Mendeleev went to bed exhausted after struggling to conceptualize a way to categorize the elements based upon their atomic weights (cited by Kedrov, 1957). He reported, "I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper. Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary." In this manner, Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the Elements was created.
(Noting that hypnagogic and reverie states are frequently associated with theta brain wave rhythms, Green, Green, and Walters (1971) have instigated a biofeedback project to train individuals to enter these states through EEG brain wave training. The association between theta production and creativity will be explored among the subjects who can successfully produce the theta rhythm.)
It can be seen that creative persons in their dreams sometimes appear to experience non-ordinary reality, and at the same time make different types of consolidations. Finding a new reality in a creative dream gives the person a novel slant or direction for consolidating his information, and the consolidation enables him to see the details and structure of the new reality more clearly. In some cases, finding a new reality not only gives the person a new direction for consolidating his information, but even involves finding additional information to be included in the consolidation.
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious
The theory which explains most precisely the mechanism by which creativity operates is that of the preconscious (Kubie, 1958). Openness in this view is really openness to the collective preconscious, an effect of the numinous element which is shared by all. It can be considered
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as an ever-refilling well wherein all creative men have learned to dip their bucket, or as a great general computer, containing in its data banks all knowledge, and creativity is but the process of operating the terminal console. Or it can be considered as a great collator, chewing up the events and ideas of the day, and rearranging them into other forms and patterns, or like an enlarged fluid container, with a permeable membrane though which (by osmosis) creative ideas are leaked into consciousness. This theory is really the only one which explains the necessity for relaxation after cognitive preparation for the creative ideas to emerge.
Such a view immediately suggests that the preconscious is the source of man's creativity, particularly when it is strengthened, protected and enlarged through regular use and through increasing mental health. The "establishment" of the preconscious is evidence that the individual is not at war with himself, not alienated from experience, not a split personality. He can be creative because almost all his past experiences, in chewed-up and digested form, ready to be reattached to new concepts, are available to his preconscious collator. It has at its disposal a vast assortment of biological impulses, tabooed acts, rejected compromises, affected pains and pleasures, remembered facts, personal feelings, horrifying nightmares and a host of other material, none of which has been suppressed, but all of which can be reused (much like old newspapers) to print a new edition. What is in the new edition depends on how much freedom the editor (preconscious) has from the incursions of the prohibitions of the conscious and super-ego and the pressures of experiences and feelings suppressed by the unconscious. The health, growth, and stability of the preconscious thus becomes of prime importance in investigating the genesis of creativity.
Greenacre (1971) feels that the openness which produces creativity is related to infantile development prior to the Oedipus resolution. She points out the frequency of family fantasies in the highly creative, and mentions special aspects as empathy, sensori-motor capacity for expression, awareness of relationships among stimuli, and greater sensory responsiveness. Greenacre's views on the oedipal and fantasy aspects of creativity have been developed elsewhere by the author (1972:17).
Pointing out that the child lives in a mythical paradisal time, Eliade (1963:77) says in footnote: "This is why the unconscious displays the structure of a private mythology ... some of its contents carry cosmic values.... Modern Man's only real contact with cosmic sacrality is effected by the unconscious, whether in dreams and his imaginative life or in the creations that arise out of the unconscious."
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Recognizing the importance of preconscious inspiration, many creative persons have intuitively derived individual mechanisms for throwing themselves into this mode of knowledge. Gerald Heard says (Weil and Others 1971:9):
To have truly original thought the mind must throw off its critical guard, its filtering censor. It must put itself in a state of depersonalization . . . The best researchers when confronting problems and riddles which have defied all solution by ordinary methods, did employ their minds in an unusual way, did put themselves into a state of egoless creativity, which permitted them to have insights so remarkable that by means of these they were able to make their greatest and most original discoveries.
Lord Tennyson was accustomed to pass into "an ecstatic state" and had a formula for inducing it (Prince, 1963:144). Tennyson says in a letter written in 1794:
1 have had ... a kind of walking trance ... when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating my own name to myself silently, till, all at once out of the intensity and conscious of the individuality, the individuality itself seems to dissolve and fade away into boundless being ...
Prince (1963:174) similarly describes the inception of Uncle Tom's Cabin quoting from the biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe:
Mrs. Stowe was seated in her pew in the college church at Brunswick, during the communion service ... Suddenly like the unrolling of a picture scroll, the scene of the death of Uncle Tom seemed to pass before her ... She was so affected she could scarcely keep from weeping ... That Sunday afternoon she went to her room, locked the door and wrote out, substantially as it appears ... the chapter called "The Death of Uncle Tom". Prince concludes:
The writing of this chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabinhas many analogies in authorship without conscious participation in the composition, to the same with conscious effort, and yet such facility that it seems as though, in the main, the material gushed up from a concealed spring.
Evidence that creative persons do, in fact, have an easier relationship with their inner selves is forthcoming from several sources. MacKinnon (1972) in a paper entitled "Creativity and Transliminal Experience"
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adduces proof for the hypothesis that creative persons experience greater ease in moving from conscious to unconscious states. Katz (1973) in doctoral study, exposed subliminal material to creative students and constricted controls, and the results clearly indicated that the creative group was superior in making use of the preconscious stimulus in response or reproduction.
There seems little need to pile up further evidence in this regard, since it is notable that the relation between creativity and the preconscious is much stronger than the various relationships in the previous section. Indeed their correlations with creative process can be looked upon as effects of their contact with the collective preconscious. In two earlier books (1972, 1974) we have given extensive coverage to this point, so we shall not prolong the argument here. But creativity as the relationship with the collective preconscious is only the beginning of the expansion of man's mind which we have identified as psychedelic. We shall pursue this development in the next section.
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self-Actualization
a) Introduction.A final way of looking at creativity is to regard it as early evidence of progress in mental health and self-actualization. The amount of creativity, other things being equal, may be regarded as a barometer of one's mental health. Maslow (Anderson, 1958:88) elaborates this idea further in saying: "The creativity of my subjects seemed to be an epiphenomenon of their greater wholesomeness and integration, which is what 'self-actualized' implies." It is as natural to express creativity under conditions of high mental health as it is for a black object when heated to radiate electromagnetic waves of heat and light.
The creative person is not necessarily perfect and without flaw. Actually, creativity occurs early in the development of the mentally healthy individual and promises the continuation of such mental health, much as ego strength predicts the successful termination of therapy. Creative performance tends to influence development in the direction of mental health, as fruit on a tree or dividends on a stock promise the future vitality of an organism.
After a careful case study investigation of the influence of mental health on creativity, Fried (1964) concluded that increased mental health as established through therapy improved artistic work habits, freed and sublimated aggressive, destructive tendencies into productive work patterns, reduced omnipotent fantasy which had caused the artists to destroy many of their works which were below the masterpiece level, and improved human relations which tended to preserve creative
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energy. The creativity increase in these artists undergoing therapy appeared as an early dividend resulting from their increased mental health.
The essence of process toward both greater mental health and greater creativity lies in the strengthening and developing of the preconscious so that it enlarges to assume a more important share in the tripartite membership of the individual psyche. This aggrandizement signals improved mental health and progress toward self-actualization, of which creative performance is an early indication. McLuhan and the existentialists emphasize a better balance between rational and pararational aspects of the psyche, and perhaps in this instance they are merely restating the thesis which has just been illustrated here.
b) General Research on Self-Actualization. Damm (1970) after analyzing studies of Arnold (1961), Blatt (1964), MacKinnon (1964), Barron (1963), Roe (1963), and Gerber (1965) on the relationship between creativity and mental health in adults, concludes that a strong relationship exists. Damm (1970) found students high in intelligence and creativity are more self-actualized as measured by Shostrom's (1966) Personal Orientation Inventory than students who are high in intelligence only. He concluded that students who obtained high scores on both areas were superior in self- actualization and recommended that the development of both intelligence and creative abilities should be a prime educational goal.
Hallman (1963), speaking about self-actualization, says:
Empirically, this criterion is supported by the great wealth of data which has been reported. Maslow (1956) has spoken most forcefully on this theme. He equates creativity with the state of psychological health, and this with the self-actualization process. There is no exception to this rule, he says. "Creativity is an universal characteristic of self-actualizing people." This form of creativeness reaches beyond special-talent creativeness; it is a fundamental characteristic of human nature. It touches whatever activity the healthy person is engaged in.
Craig (1966) reviewed trait theories of creativity and listed four personality correlates which were congruent with Maslow's holistic scheme of self-actualization and character integration. Newton (1968) in doctoral research found high correlation between progress toward self-actualization and intelligence.
Moustakas (1967) attempted to conceptualize creativity in terms of self-growth and self-renewal by stressing the uniqueness of the individual and his potentialities for mental health.
Helder, in doctoral research (1968) contrasted mystical and peak
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experiences found in the more open creative stance with traditional perceptual-cognitive consciousness. It is interesting to note that Maslow in his famous study of self-actualizing persons, found none who were not creative. In imitation of Maslow's work, we present some characteristics of self -actualizing persons which seem to be related to their creativity as follows: a) introduction b) general research on self-actualization, c) joy, content, and expectation of good, d) serendipity, e) increased control over environment, f) sense of destiny, g) acceptance of self, others, and nature, h) spontaneity, i) detachment and autonomy, j) Gemeinschaftsgefuhl, k) a philosophical and unhostile sense of humor, 1) psychological and semantic flexibility, and m) the "witness-phenomenon." These aspects represent the maturing of the creative phase of development, or the spread of the function through man's mind which signals increasing readiness for the next level of mind expansion.
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Rogers (1968) in unique doctoral research investigated the childhoods of self-actualizing persons (identified on the POI), using the high and low fifteen out of 183 undergraduate males. The degree and variety of common participation among members of the family was significantly greater in the families of the self-actualizing students, with their parents more approving, more trusting, and more lenient. Fisher (1972) using the POI on nominated paranormals, found a trend for paranormals to score in the direction of self-actualization. McClain and Andrews (1969) has 139 students write about their most wonderful experience, and found evidence that those who wrote about peak experiences were more self-actualized than those who did not. Thorne and Piskin (1968) did a factor analysis on successful executives and found five factors which they claimed were related to self- actualization: secure individualism, egocentrism, doing right, self-determination, and independent self-assertion. Garfield (1968) in doctoral research found that subjects whose mental health and growth were improved by a psychotherapy treatment of fifteen weeks, showed significantly greater gains in creativity than a control group. Blanchard (1970) investigated the psychodynamics of the peak-experience and reported that "the creative act pushed the boundaries of the self . . . " He stressed both the exhilaration arid danger in the greater creativity which the peak-experience releases. Frankl (1966:97ff) in talking about self-transcendence says that motivational theories based on homeostatic principles overlook the satisfaction which is intrinsic to finding more meaning and order in life as a result of peak-experiences.
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The self-actualization explanation of creativity is not just another way of looking at the subject; for some it is the only way. The mind expanding aspect is seen as a fundamental property of life, with creativity the aurora of the new dawn. Barron (1968:305) echoes this view:
The tendency of life then is toward the expansion of consciousness. In a sense, a description of means for the expansion of consciousness has been the central theme of this book, and it is in this evolutionary tendency that such diverse phenomena as psychotherapy, surprising or unexpected self-renewal, the personally evolved and deepened forms of religious belief, creative imagination, mysticism, and deliberately induced changes of
consciousness through the use of chemicals find a common bond. c) Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good. One of the most interesting aspects of creativity is that affective development seems to go along with cognitive development, so that positive feelings about oneself, others, and the universe are felt by most creative persons. There is in particular an absence of generalized fear, anxiety, and insecurity, which is perhaps related to a wider competence, but seems more due to a dawning realization of the beneficence of the cosmos. The optimist is luckier than the pessimist, and creative people tend to be optimists. Perhaps this is because creativity represents the ability to solve new problems so that one is not fearful of the future. One is reminded of Bucke's characteristics of illumination (White, 1972:87ff) which mentions joy, assurance, a sense of immortality, the vanishing of the fear of sin and death. One is also reminded of the reply of Thoreau on his death-bed when asked if he wanted to make his peace with God: "We have never fallen out."
d) Serendipity. The princes of Serendip upon being sent on missions by their father to discover certain things, discovered, instead, other things for which they were not looking. The word has entered the language since it expresses a phenomenon which occurs to creative people: namely the situation of which Einstein speaks: if we quiet the mind and relax, we find to our surprise that "a new idea modestly presents itself." The discovery of things for which one was not looking, indicates that the collective preconscious is wiser than we are, for it seems to know what we need to discover, even though our conscious mind does not. In this sense serendipity replaces the random aspects of nature with an ordering in the mind which is a great time saver.
e) Increased Control over Environment. There are several senses in which creative persons gain this control. In the first place there is the purely outer consequence that a creative product solves an
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environmental challenge with a higher response. In the second place, the fact that one is creative gives one the potentiality to solve the next crisis, and hence, to have potential control. In the third place, because creativity represents an intuitive brush with the noumenon, it involves some kind of esoteric control of the environment. We shall call this control "orthocognition" and discuss it further in section 4.5; healing, in some respects the "twin" of creativity, is an aspect of this increased control.
f) Sense of Destiny. Because the creative person sees some order and plan in the universe, and believes himself to be a part of that plan, he has a sense of destiny. He is ordered in the sense that the atoms in a piece of magnetized iron are ordered. Like the last two sections, the concept involves an escalation from randomness to order, or if you are a physics major, a decrease in entropy. The creative person also becomes more independent of time, and more conscious of past-present-future all at once, and this too gives him a perspective which others interpret as a sense of destiny.
g) Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature. If I can't accept me, I can't accept you, and if I can't accept you, I certainly can't accept those other even more dreadful people. Consequently the ability to accept ourselves (with all our faults), our loved ones (with all their faults), and finally the rest of the world (with all its faults) is a real barometer of maturity. This acceptance signals development away from egocentricity and the identity crisis. Maslow (1954:207-8) points out that self-actualizing people can accept the animal part of themselves without neurotic disgust; they can accept others because of their lack of defensiveness, but show distaste for cant and hypocrisy in social relationships. They accept nature because they see reality more clearly and without the spectacles of prejudice: "One does not complain about water because it is wet."
h) Spontaneity. Creative persons are spontaneous and free. They are not constricted or compartmentalized. They have an open, free, loving life style which resembles that of an artist more than that of an undertaker. They are intraceptive in being open to feelings; they are therefore childlike, although not immature. Maslow (1954:208-9) points out that the behavior of self-actualizing persons is marked by simpleness and naturalness. Spontaneity is related to the essential autonomy of the person of which we shall next speak.
i) Detachment and Autonomy. Creative persons are inner-oriented, and need privacy and some degree of withdrawal. They are in the world but not of it. They "march to the music of a distant drum" and hence need quiet in order to hear it. While not in the least
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immoral, they are often unconventional; they obey a higher inner law, rather than a lower outer statute. When Thoreau was in jail for refusing to support the Mexican War and Emerson bailed him out, Emerson is supposed to have said: "Henry, why are you here?" to which Thoreau replied: "Ralph, why are you not here?" This exchange is an excellent example of autonomy, as Thoreau's three years at Walden Pond is an excellent example of detachment. Creative persons appear to have psychological needs for both of these aspects, even though their expression often causes pain to their more conventional friends. Maslow (1954:212-213) discusses both of these qualities in the self-actualizing person. Of detachment he says: "They like solitude and privacy more than the average person." Their extreme concentration which requires privacy is interpreted as coldness by some people. Their autonomy results from a transcendence of lower orders of the Maslow hierarchy which require others, to one which requires the best in oneself. As a result, these persons are relatively stable in adversity, and maintain serenity and content in the midst of the vicissitudes of life.
j) Gemeinschaftsgefuhl (Brotherly love). This quality is often seen in higher creatives. It manifests itself in a general reverence for life (Schweitzer); "We are all tarred with the same brush" (Gandhi), or a broad humanitarianism (Eleanor Roosevelt). American culture tends to suppress this gentle quality in favor of violence and self-interest, so it is often more seen in other peoples; it is a much more noticeable aspect of New Zealand life, for example. It is fostered by a sense of communitas, and it answers Cain's question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Maslow (1954:217) says of this quality: "They have for human beings in general a deep feeling of identity and affection." He notices their "general desire to help the whole human race" "as if they were all members of a single family."
k) A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor.It may seem surprising that Maslow would mention this quality, which is denigrated as a rather low one, but is in fact a characteristic of the highest importance. Whenever you see a humorist of this type, always suspect a philosopher of deep wisdom underneath: Mark Twain, Voltaire, Artemus Ward, Mr. Dooley, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Will Rogers, and Art Buchwald are all examples. Humor of this type stems from semantic flexibility plus the ability to see behind appearances to reality. It also requires ego-transcendence or psychological objectivity. The humor must be unhostile (like Mr. Magoo of the movie shorts), not concerned with our insensitivity to the woes of
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other people. It is closely connected (as was seen in Lincoln's stories) with the telling of parables, which is a kind of verbal analogy. Humor is a peculiar characteristic of creative persons, in that it is one of the earliest predictors (appearing even in childhood) as well as being one of the highest evidences. Maslow (1954:222) found humor common to all of his self-actualizers. It was not, however, the common type of humor; it was "the humor of the real because it consists in large part in poking fun at human beings in general when they are foolish. It masked a deeper philosophy.
1) Psychological and Semantic Flexibility. One of the very interesting aspects of continued creativity is the development of a very considerable degree of psychological (affective) and semantic (cognitive) flexibility, which turn out to have emergent properties. Both cut down on the inertia of the mind, making it easier and more expeditious in the change required for new insights. Rothenberg (1971)calls this process "Janusian thinking," which he defines as the capacity to conceive and utilize two or more opposite or contradictory ideas simultaneously. The higher reconciliation of these ideas often leads to a creative breakthrough (e.g., the "complementarity principle" in physics). Semantic flexibility also allows the individual to avoid semantic traps which engulf the formal operations philosopher; one zeros in on the similarity of process not being confused by the dissimilarity of different languages used to describe the process. This sort of semantic flexibility leads to "problem-centering" and "problem-finding" so noticeable in really creative persons, whereas most other people get lost in the maze of symptoms, or in their outraged reactions to the situation. Psychological flexibility is an evidence of the dismantling of the egocentricity so characteristic of earlier stages. The truly creative person does not need to support his ego at the expense of the crisis situation. Finally, such flexibility leads to an ability to understand and deal with general systems theory, another effort at looking beneath the empirical to find logical unity in seeming diversity.
m) The "Witness" Phenomenon. Although not mentioned by Maslow, this effect is also part of the final perfection of creative performance. It was earlier suggested by Huxley (1954),who observing the limiting function of personality structure on consciousness said:
We should do well to consider much more seriously the type of theory which Bergson put forward in connection with memory and sense perception. The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive ...
(page 310) This"reducing valve" theory that each of us represents "mind at large" but that the brain protects us from all this information by shutting off most of it, has significant consequences for the theory of creativity as an opening to this collective preconscious. An outcome is that the more creative we become, the more of this input we can assimilate. Sri Aurobindo (Satprem, 1968:43) calls this phenomenon "the witness," for part of ourselves witnesses the cosmic mind within us thinking on many aspects of different problems at once, whereas our individual mind can think only of one. Discovering the witness in ourself discloses that "the mind is not an instrument of knowledge, but only an organizer of knowledge" (Ibid:45). All this cosmic activity is going on in consciousness, and our expanded consciousness taps into it.
Underhill (1930:366) makes the same point in noting the similarity between creativity and mystic ecstasy:
As the saints are caught up in God, so these are caught up in their visions; these partial apprehensions of the Absolute Life. . . . Their greatest creations are translations to us, not of something they have thought, but of something they have known in a moment of ecstatic union. . . .
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory
In the lower levels of creative production, the individual engages in creative problem-solving. In the higher levels, the mind becomes an organizer of the knowledge which wells up in it from creative openings in the preconscious. Organization is anti-entropy; it is order in place of disorder. Consequently, it validates our general theory of creativity to find that it introduces "a new and higher order" into experience. One would expect this emergent property to occur if creativity is a stepping stone on the pathway to self-actualization.
The essence of this order or organization is to find unity in diversity, the same process in different products, a universe filled with isomorphisms. Metaphor, analogy, and homology are primitive aspects of this process, but there are higher considerations to which we need to turn.
There are several examples of this emerging order in man's understanding of nature. Mathematics, especially set theory is one, cybernetics, based on the feedback principle another, and information theory a third. Systems and human engineering theories are a fourth, decision theory a fifth, and general semantics a sixth. Since each of these areas has its own extensive literature, we shall turn to a seventh, that of general systems theory, which is far younger, less organized, and much less well known.
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It is generally accepted that while some earlier writers had glimpsed the outlines of the subject, general systems theory was founded by von Bertalanffy in his classic of the same title (1968).
Bertalanffy (1968:vii) defines his subject as follows:
Systems theory is a broad view which far transcends technological problems and demands, a reorientation that has become necessary in science in general . . . It is operative with varying degrees of success, in various realms, and heralds a new world view of considerable impact.
Bertalanffy (1968:38) states the purposes and aims of general systems theory as: "a tendency toward integration, centered in a general theory of systems, aiming at exact theory in nonphysical fields, which develop universal principles toward a goal of unity in science, which can lead to integration in scientific education."
Although Bertalanffy had published before then, general systems theory got its formal start in an informal meeting in 1954 at Palo Alto of K. Boulding, the economist; A. Rapoport, the biomathematician; R. Gerard, the physiologist; and Bertalanffy. They founded the society for General Systems Research, which later became a division of AAAS. The yearbooks General Systems edited by A. Rapoport have served as the house organ.
The genius of Bertalanffy, the founder of General Systems Theory, was according to Laszlo (1972:4-8) that he was the first to recognize that the process of organization of scientific knowledge might be as important as the product. This concept involved holism rather than analysis, integration rather than differentiation of scientific knowledge, the unity of nature in a diversity of forms, and the emphasis on scientific humanism rather than mechanical technology. It has come, concludes Laszlo (1972:11) "to represent a new paradigm of contemporary scientific thought," and it provides science with a new and very powerful tool.
Buckley (1967:39), a sociologist, points out that systems theory concentrates on organization and involves the following advantages:
(1) a common vocabulary across several disciplines;
(2) a technique for treating organized complexity;
(3) a synthetic approach where a holistic analysis must be made;
(4) a study of relations not entities; and
(5) an operational study of purposefulness and goal-seeking behavior.
Bertalanffy (1968:81ff) also notes that general systems theory depends on isomorphisms. These in turn rest on cognition, reality, and the organization of the universe in mathematical terms. He points out analogy (superficial similarities), homologies (identical basic laws in different disciplines) and the explanation of specific laws as special
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cases. These general notions "acquire exact expression ... only in mathematical language."
Others who have made efforts in the direction of general systems, but whose work is too demanding for our summary treatment are the physicist lberall (1972), the economist Boulding, the linguist Watzlawick (1967), the physiologist Gerard, the educator Clark (Laszlo, 1972) and the mathematician Rapoport (Laszlo, 1972).
Of all the ways of expressing the basic concepts of general systems theory, the most useful is that of set theory in mathematics. It is none other than Laszlo (1972b:19) who says: "Looking at the world in terms of such sets of integrated relations constitutes the systems view."
The individual who has contributed most to the application of mathematical set theory to general systems is Stuart Dodd, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Washington. (A summary of his Epicosm Model of the Universe will be found in the Appendix.) Briefly (but incompletely) stated, actants (the set of all names) interact in all possible ways to organize the cosmos (the set of all things namable) in all of its parts. Nature works in the cosmos to organize creation in terms of exponents (logarithms) to the base two (bit-logs).
Bertalanffy (1968:42) points out that the bit-log of N equals the amount of information from N questions. "This measure of information happens to be similar to negative entropy, since entropy is also defined as a logarithm of probability. But entropy is a measure of disorder; hence negative entropy is a measure of order or organization . . . "
So Dodd's system works in bit-logs, with four fundamental operations: pairings (2x), squaring (x2) , norming (2x), and fulfilling (xx). These operations are special cases of the enumerative generator (1 + 1 / n) n , which give rise to basic constants (such as the square root of 3), whose four fundamental function values constantly recur.21 Since general systems is viewed as the only science of which all other sciences are but applications, these basic sets and constants are related to all physical laws and constants (such as E=mc2 and the speed of light), all of which may be derived from them.
4.39 Conclusion
We conclude this section with some general observations about creativity.
1. Creativity is an emergent function, an unexpected escalation from Piagetian formal operations. It involves divergent instead of convergent thinking. It is the lowest level of consciousness to show a distinctly "other-than-human" quality in the aspect of creative
(page 313)
inspiration which forces most researchers to admit its intuitional aspect.
2. Creativity is more than problem-solving, more than mere rational semantic factors of intellect. Its essence involves openness to preconscious elements. This psychological openness, rather than "connectedness" is the foundation of the bridging between the conscious ego and the numinous element.
3. Creativity involves the "gentling of the preconscious," since it allows the conscious mind to gain insights from, and to establish an intuitive relationship with, the preconscious. The joining of the individual and general minds (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane), seen earlier only in trance states, now becomes suffused with reality, so that it is closer within the reach of the conscious mind, and thus less irrational and frightening, and more humane and useful. The trauma and dread of the prototaxic numinous have been replaced with creative fantasy, and an intuitive relationship. It is this gentling, humanizing process exerted on the preconscious by creative function of the individual, which is the only proper preparation for the psychedelic graces. The absence of this creative experience, however, may place the individual at the mercy of untoward experiences (such as are found on bad drug trips) when he contacts the psychic area.
4. Creativity is also developmental, leading to self-actualization, for which it is a necessary prerequisite, and to high mental health which is also required for successful entry into the psychedelic graces.
5. Higher emergent aspects of creativity also appear in individuals such as the "witness phenomenon," in which the individual witnesses an almost autonomous development of ideas in his own mind, often several at a time.
6. Creativity also leads to higher organizations of experience, such as general systems theory, in which isomorphisms and homologues play an important part in uncovering the unity in diversity.
7. Finally, creativity has a holistic quality, which restores the balance between right and left hemisphere function, between analog and digital computer aspects of thinking. But we leave the last word on this subject to Hall (1972) who says:
Since creative thought is the most important thing which makes people different from monkeys, it should be treated as a commodity more precious than gold, and preserved with the greatest care.
Man's mind is a device for bringing infinite mind into manifestation in time; creativity is the commencement of this actualization. (page 314)
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana -4) 22
4.41 General Introduction
Through a combination of experimental psychology, computer technology, and electrophysiology, it has now become possible to increase knowledge of the brain's functions and consciousness, and it seems that it may be possible to perceive and control some of the brain functions.
The primary subject of concern is the possibility of learning to be aware of the presence of one type of brain wave, the alpha type, and the possible psychological and physiological benefits that may occur from such learning and control.
Alpha wave biofeedback is a modern and enactive method of learning to generate brain waves of alpha (8-13 hertz) and theta (4-8 hertz) frequencies. It may surprise the reader that such a mechanical technique should be included as a syntaxic procedure, but we shall attempt to supply evidence that this is indeed the case. Basically, through the use of a light, buzzer, or bell, when alpha waves are being generated, the subject is taught consciously to gain control of what appears in effect to be a meditative state. Such wave frequencies are found in yogis, Zen masters, and highly creative persons. This fact does not prove that meditative states are caused by alpha waves, since the waves may be the effect of the state. The testimony, however, of those who are "into alpha," in its mental health and serendipity implications (all positive) indicates that this subject deserves careful investigation.
There is wide agreement in the research literature that the alpha rhythm represents a kind of synchrony in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex; Banquet (1973) noticed this effect in meditating subjects. Eleanor Criswell (1969) speculates that: "If we reduce cortical activity and still the mind, we are allowing more primitive brain structures to have more free play . . . more unification."
Green, et al (1971a) say:
The immediate value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives the subject an immediate indication of his progress in learning to control a given physiological variable . . . This makes it possible to detect and promote through training voluntary changes in physiological variables that are particularly related to and indicative of changes in states of attention, consciousness, and awareness - the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms. The beta rhythm (13-26hz) is associated with what we might call active thinking, or active attention - attention focused on the outside world or on solving concrete problems; the alpha
(page 315) rhythm (8-13 hz) is associated with a more internally focused state; the mind is alert but not focused on external processes nor engaged in organized logical thinking; the theta rhythm (4-8 hz) is usually associated with unconscious or nearly unconscious states; it appears as consciousness slips toward unawareness or drowsiness, and is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like images. A fourth frequency band, the delta rhythm (0-4 hz) is primarily associated with deep sleep. In actuality there is no such thing as training in brain-wave control; there is training only in the elicitation of certain subjective states which are accompanied by oscillating voltages in the central nervous system detected on the subject's scalp.39
Hoover (1971) points out that in discussing biofeedback training, semantics become a problem in the use of the terms "controlling" one's brain waves. In biofeedback training a person is not learning to directly control the neuronal electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Rather he is learning to control the subjective or mental events that are indicated by the presence of alpha or theta. In using the word "control" then, it should be thought of in this way rather than the usual meaning of the term.
Kamiya has been investigating the alpha wave and its potential for many years. He has found that the alpha wave is the most prominent rhythm in the whole realm of brain activity and that the waves tend to come in bursts of a few waves to many hundred. In 1958, he compared EEG's made during waking and sleeping. In these comparisons, he became fascinated with the alpha waves that came and went in the waking EEG's and wondered if subjects could be taught awareness of this internal state. He summarizes his work (Stoyva and Kamiya 1968:201):
The basic working assumptions in the Kamiya alpha control studies and in similar experiments is this: If measurable physiological events are associated with discriminable mental events, than it will be possible to reinforce in the presence of the physiological event, and in so doing: a) enable S to discriminate better whether the physiological event and the associated mental event are present, b) perhaps, also, enable S to acquire some degree of control over the physiological event and the associated mental event.
Barbara Brown (1970b) has also experimented with alpha wave control and its implications in psychophysiology. In one study she attempted to identify aspects of consciousness as moods and feeling states.
(page 316)
The results showed that effective enhancement of alpha activity was more regularly associated with pleasant thoughts and feelings. The uniqueness of the experiment lay in the fact that there was no external stimuli or reinforcement for the subject-instrument feedback circuit. There was no stimulus or response within the feedback circuit that could be isolated as such.
In her new book, Brown (1974) makes a number of important points about biofeedback. The role of biofeedback in muscle relaxation is very healthful, and in addition induces a state of reverie with spontaneous images which may generate desirable energies and emotions. She notes that biofeedback research has led to rediscovery of the human will, which seems to play an important part in many of the therapies derived from biofeedback. Among the most important of these are voluntary control of heart beat and pressure.23 She sees biofeedback as reducing tensions in society generally, and lessening the task of psychologists and counselors; she also feels that it may be useful in inducing meditation and in encouraging creativity. She concludes: "Biofeedback may guide the mind in a journey through inner space into far-distant spheres of consciousness."
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation24
Meditative states have long been known to produce altered psychological states. Two of the most popular forms of meditation are Yoga and Zen. Yoga means "union" and is usually defined as a higher consciousness achieved through a full rested and relaxed body and a fully awake and relaxed mind. It may be achieved through strenuous physical exercise, focusing on one particular function, i.e. respiration, or by focusing on mental processes. Zen is basically sitting meditation which is a kind of religious exercise.
There is some evidence that an increase in alpha production is generally found in meditative states. Kasamatsu and Hirai (1969) in studies with subjects who had varied experience in Zen training found EEG changes with the appearance of alpha waves without regard to opened eyes. The alpha waves increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency as the meditation progresses. In the later stage of meditation, theta waves also appear. The results seem to indicate that the degree of the subject's Zen state and the number of years spent in Zen training influence the appearance of the waves.
The investigators indentified four stages which were characterized by changes in the EEG (1969:493):
Stage I - a slight change which is characterized by the appearance of alpha waves in spite of opened eyes. Stage II - the increase in amplitude of persistent alpha waves.
(page 317) Stage III - the decrease of alpha frequency. Stage IV - the appearance of the rhythmical theta train, which is the final change of EEG during Zen meditation, but does not always occur.
In comparisons of the EEG's recorded during meditation with those of hypnotic trance and sleep, the changes of Stages I, II, and III could not be clearly differentiated from those seen in hypnagogic state of hypnotic sleep. The changes were more persistent during meditation and the deeper sleep pattern did not appear.
Anand, et al. (1961) found similar results in Yogis. Both their normal and resting EEG records showed predominant alpha activity. There was increased alpha amplitude modulation during meditation. The subjects also had the ability to maintain high alpha even if presented with various sensory stimuli during meditation.
The research that has been conducted on biofeedback training has mainly recorded alpha waves from the occipital areas of the cortex. The high amplitude low frequency alpha patterns have been found to shift from the occipital region at the rear of the head to central and frontal regions. Little biofeedback training has been attempted in the central and frontal areas. Usually it is more difficult to develop alpha in these areas while it occurs naturally in most individuals in the occipital area. Even so, it may be possible with biofeedback training to achieve in a few months, what it often takes years of disciplined meditative practice to achieve. Both meditation and alpha control require passive attention, physical relaxation and a feeling of flowing with the inner and outer world.
Wallace and Benson (1972) in a study of subjects who practice "transcendental meditation" found physiological changes as well as increased alpha waves. This type of meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and does not require great periods of training. In this meditative state, Wallace and Benson found that their subjects manifested the physiological signs of a "wakeful, hypometabolic state." There were reductions in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, and the rate and volume of respiration. There was a slight increase in the acidity of the arterial blood, a marked decrease in the blood lactate level. The heart rate slowed, the skin resistance increased and the EEG pattern showed intensification of slow alpha waves with occasional theta wave activity. All of these findings are similar to those found in Yoga and Zen monks who have had fifteen to twenty years of experience in meditation. Perhaps alpha wave training may lead to the ability or produce these physiological changes in a short time span.
(page 318)
Kawin-Toomim(1972) says in this regard:
The possibility of using alpha control to reach "altered states of consciousness" is an exciting one ... To manipulate alpha is only to alter the occurrence of a natural state. This, apparently, is one of the things meditators do after years of training . . . It is tempting ... to think that ... training such patterns by the quicker, easier biofeedback methods will provide the same total subjective experience.
She also notes the bond which has been repeatedly established in these pages between self-actualization and the direction of psychotherapy:
Alpha feedback is a powerful tool for the psychotherapist. The possibility of training subjects at will to experience the deep reverie and increased ability to visualize as in "awake dreaming," often found in low frequency alpha and theta brain activity, is a valuable tool for psychotherapists who use these experiences with their clients.
Gellhorn and Kiely (Miller and others, 1973:488) believe that there are similarities between yoga meditation and REM sleep. They resemble hypnosis in the suspension of will, in cortical arousal combined with trophotropic relaxation in the muscles. There is also vivid perceptual imagery and the loss of the sense of time and space. Stoyva (Miller and others 1973:492) also reports that hypnagogic imagery associated with 4-7 hertz theta rhythm is of a similar nature, and associated with muscle relaxation. Green, Green and Walters (1970) associate this hypnagogic revery state with creativity. The common element here seems to be an opening of the conscious mind to the preconscious, and biofeedback appears to be a viable method of making this happen.
Section III of the 1972 Aldine Annual on biofeedback (Shapiro and others 1972:145-191) is devoted to the development of consciousness and creativity through biofeedback methods, containing articles by Budzynski on twilight states, Green on healing and creativity enhancement through alpha, and Nideffer on alpha and the development of human potential. Again, the testimony of this research is to the mutual relationship of these various processes.
It appears to us that the claims of alpha wave biofeedback to facilitate the mastery of meditation through operant conditioning techniques is an assertion which needs to be examined very seriously. After all, alpha wave training is a technique which may be used with any meditational approach. In this day of instant everything, it may even
(page 319)
be possible to speed up the process of self-actualization by such a means. At least the contingency deserves a careful exploration. From what has been said previously, it is obvious that the facilitation of the alpha state may not only bring one to the terminal of the "great computer," but that it will promote increased concentration, learning, and recall on the cognitive side, and pleasure and relaxation on the affective. There is not space here in this discussion on meditation to document these possibilities more fully, but there are good grounds for such speculation. We should not conclude, however, without at least one paragraph devoted to the relation between biofeedback and creativity.
4.43 Alpha and Creativity
There is perhaps some correlation between alpha-theta output and creativity. A state of reverie which is described by Green, Green, and Walters (1970) as a state of inward-turned abstract attention or internal scanning may be related to theta and low-frequency alpha. In this state there seems to be an increase of hypnagogic and dream-like images, pictures or words which must seem to spring into the mind. Many creative people such as writer Aldous Huxley, mathematician Poincare, and poet A. E. Housman, report that it is through a reverie state that their creative inspirations have come. Some researchers believe that creative persons have stumbled upon and then developed to a high degree the ability to visualize in the area in which they are creative.
Hard evidence on the relation of alpha generation to enhanced openness including creativity, ESP, and so forth, is not available. Honorton and Carbone (1971) failed to find a significant relationship between alpha generation and ESP. Lewis and Schmedler (1971) did find some relationship between high alpha and ESP, but they suggest that the relationship is not simple, and that each variable interacts with other factors. Engstrom and others (1970) in an experiment attempting the establishment of a relationship between EEG feedback training and hypnotic susceptibility concluded that alpha and hypnotic susceptibility are similar subjective states. This area would profit by more definitive research.
It is possible that both the euphoria and the alpha waves are mere epiphenomena indicating that the subject is in an altered state of consciousness which is particularly conducive to terminal access to the collective computer, and hence to telepathy, healing, precognition, and the rest of the psychic powers. Watson (1973:257) suspects that the connection between telepathy and the alpha rhythm is crucial, and cites the Russian experiments of Popov which indicated that
(page 320)
each time telepathy occurred, alpha rhythms were found. He concludes (1973:256): "It seems certain that both telepathy and psychokinesis occur only under certain psychological conditions and that these are the ones marked by the production of brain waves of a particular frequency." The theta rhythm seems to be the physiological correlate of psychokinesis, and the alpha rhythm does the same for telepathy.
In concluding the proper place of alpha wave biofeedback in the continuum of this chapter, one is struck by the fact that the symptoms of the state are much more cognitive than otherwise, and that it tends to resemble more that of meditation than it does that of dissociation. All evidence of the earlier suggestibility of the trance state has been lost, except the "passivity," and far from there being an excursion of the ego, it is obviously present, and functioning. In these characteristics the alpha state can hardly be said to represent a type of developmental forcing, and perhaps the worst that can be said of it is that it is a technique in search of a rationale. Indeed, the evidence from research in this section is so persuasive that it suggests that the presence of alpha might be regarded as the boundary marker between the dissociative trance of developmental forcing, and the more positive states of creativity and psychedelia.
4.39 Conclusion
We conclude this section with some general observations about creativity.
1. Creativity is an emergent function, an unexpected escalation from Piagetian formal operations. It involves divergent instead of convergent thinking. It is the lowest level of consciousness to show a distinctly "other-than-human" quality in the aspect of creative
(page 313)
inspiration which forces most researchers to admit its intuitional aspect.
2. Creativity is more than problem-solving, more than mere rational semantic factors of intellect. Its essence involves openness to preconscious elements. This psychological openness, rather than "connectedness" is the foundation of the bridging between the conscious ego and the numinous element.
3. Creativity involves the "gentling of the preconscious," since it allows the conscious mind to gain insights from, and to establish an intuitive relationship with, the preconscious. The joining of the individual and general minds (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane), seen earlier only in trance states, now becomes suffused with reality, so that it is closer within the reach of the conscious mind, and thus less irrational and frightening, and more humane and useful. The trauma and dread of the prototaxic numinous have been replaced with creative fantasy, and an intuitive relationship. It is this gentling, humanizing process exerted on the preconscious by creative function of the individual, which is the only proper preparation for the psychedelic graces. The absence of this creative experience, however, may place the individual at the mercy of untoward experiences (such as are found on bad drug trips) when he contacts the psychic area.
4. Creativity is also developmental, leading to self-actualization, for which it is a necessary prerequisite, and to high mental health which is also required for successful entry into the psychedelic graces.
5. Higher emergent aspects of creativity also appear in individuals such as the "witness phenomenon," in which the individual witnesses an almost autonomous development of ideas in his own mind, often several at a time.
6. Creativity also leads to higher organizations of experience, such as general systems theory, in which isomorphisms and homologues play an important part in uncovering the unity in diversity.
7. Finally, creativity has a holistic quality, which restores the balance between right and left hemisphere function, between analog and digital computer aspects of thinking. But we leave the last word on this subject to Hall (1972) who says:
Since creative thought is the most important thing which makes people different from monkeys, it should be treated as a commodity more precious than gold, and preserved with the greatest care.
Man's mind is a device for bringing infinite mind into manifestation in time; creativity is the commencement of this actualization. (page 314)
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana -4) 22
4.41 General Introduction
Through a combination of experimental psychology, computer technology, and electrophysiology, it has now become possible to increase knowledge of the brain's functions and consciousness, and it seems that it may be possible to perceive and control some of the brain functions.
The primary subject of concern is the possibility of learning to be aware of the presence of one type of brain wave, the alpha type, and the possible psychological and physiological benefits that may occur from such learning and control.
Alpha wave biofeedback is a modern and enactive method of learning to generate brain waves of alpha (8-13 hertz) and theta (4-8 hertz) frequencies. It may surprise the reader that such a mechanical technique should be included as a syntaxic procedure, but we shall attempt to supply evidence that this is indeed the case. Basically, through the use of a light, buzzer, or bell, when alpha waves are being generated, the subject is taught consciously to gain control of what appears in effect to be a meditative state. Such wave frequencies are found in yogis, Zen masters, and highly creative persons. This fact does not prove that meditative states are caused by alpha waves, since the waves may be the effect of the state. The testimony, however, of those who are "into alpha," in its mental health and serendipity implications (all positive) indicates that this subject deserves careful investigation.
There is wide agreement in the research literature that the alpha rhythm represents a kind of synchrony in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex; Banquet (1973) noticed this effect in meditating subjects. Eleanor Criswell (1969) speculates that: "If we reduce cortical activity and still the mind, we are allowing more primitive brain structures to have more free play . . . more unification."
Green, et al (1971a) say:
The immediate value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives the subject an immediate indication of his progress in learning to control a given physiological variable . . . This makes it possible to detect and promote through training voluntary changes in physiological variables that are particularly related to and indicative of changes in states of attention, consciousness, and awareness - the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms. The beta rhythm (13-26hz) is associated with what we might call active thinking, or active attention - attention focused on the outside world or on solving concrete problems; the alpha
(page 315) rhythm (8-13 hz) is associated with a more internally focused state; the mind is alert but not focused on external processes nor engaged in organized logical thinking; the theta rhythm (4-8 hz) is usually associated with unconscious or nearly unconscious states; it appears as consciousness slips toward unawareness or drowsiness, and is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like images. A fourth frequency band, the delta rhythm (0-4 hz) is primarily associated with deep sleep. In actuality there is no such thing as training in brain-wave control; there is training only in the elicitation of certain subjective states which are accompanied by oscillating voltages in the central nervous system detected on the subject's scalp.39
Hoover (1971) points out that in discussing biofeedback training, semantics become a problem in the use of the terms "controlling" one's brain waves. In biofeedback training a person is not learning to directly control the neuronal electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Rather he is learning to control the subjective or mental events that are indicated by the presence of alpha or theta. In using the word "control" then, it should be thought of in this way rather than the usual meaning of the term.
Kamiya has been investigating the alpha wave and its potential for many years. He has found that the alpha wave is the most prominent rhythm in the whole realm of brain activity and that the waves tend to come in bursts of a few waves to many hundred. In 1958, he compared EEG's made during waking and sleeping. In these comparisons, he became fascinated with the alpha waves that came and went in the waking EEG's and wondered if subjects could be taught awareness of this internal state. He summarizes his work (Stoyva and Kamiya 1968:201):
The basic working assumptions in the Kamiya alpha control studies and in similar experiments is this: If measurable physiological events are associated with discriminable mental events, than it will be possible to reinforce in the presence of the physiological event, and in so doing: a) enable S to discriminate better whether the physiological event and the associated mental event are present, b) perhaps, also, enable S to acquire some degree of control over the physiological event and the associated mental event.
Barbara Brown (1970b) has also experimented with alpha wave control and its implications in psychophysiology. In one study she attempted to identify aspects of consciousness as moods and feeling states.
(page 316)
The results showed that effective enhancement of alpha activity was more regularly associated with pleasant thoughts and feelings. The uniqueness of the experiment lay in the fact that there was no external stimuli or reinforcement for the subject-instrument feedback circuit. There was no stimulus or response within the feedback circuit that could be isolated as such.
In her new book, Brown (1974) makes a number of important points about biofeedback. The role of biofeedback in muscle relaxation is very healthful, and in addition induces a state of reverie with spontaneous images which may generate desirable energies and emotions. She notes that biofeedback research has led to rediscovery of the human will, which seems to play an important part in many of the therapies derived from biofeedback. Among the most important of these are voluntary control of heart beat and pressure.23 She sees biofeedback as reducing tensions in society generally, and lessening the task of psychologists and counselors; she also feels that it may be useful in inducing meditation and in encouraging creativity. She concludes: "Biofeedback may guide the mind in a journey through inner space into far-distant spheres of consciousness."
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation24
Meditative states have long been known to produce altered psychological states. Two of the most popular forms of meditation are Yoga and Zen. Yoga means "union" and is usually defined as a higher consciousness achieved through a full rested and relaxed body and a fully awake and relaxed mind. It may be achieved through strenuous physical exercise, focusing on one particular function, i.e. respiration, or by focusing on mental processes. Zen is basically sitting meditation which is a kind of religious exercise.
There is some evidence that an increase in alpha production is generally found in meditative states. Kasamatsu and Hirai (1969) in studies with subjects who had varied experience in Zen training found EEG changes with the appearance of alpha waves without regard to opened eyes. The alpha waves increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency as the meditation progresses. In the later stage of meditation, theta waves also appear. The results seem to indicate that the degree of the subject's Zen state and the number of years spent in Zen training influence the appearance of the waves.
The investigators indentified four stages which were characterized by changes in the EEG (1969:493):
Stage I - a slight change which is characterized by the appearance of alpha waves in spite of opened eyes. Stage II - the increase in amplitude of persistent alpha waves.
(page 317) Stage III - the decrease of alpha frequency. Stage IV - the appearance of the rhythmical theta train, which is the final change of EEG during Zen meditation, but does not always occur.
In comparisons of the EEG's recorded during meditation with those of hypnotic trance and sleep, the changes of Stages I, II, and III could not be clearly differentiated from those seen in hypnagogic state of hypnotic sleep. The changes were more persistent during meditation and the deeper sleep pattern did not appear.
Anand, et al. (1961) found similar results in Yogis. Both their normal and resting EEG records showed predominant alpha activity. There was increased alpha amplitude modulation during meditation. The subjects also had the ability to maintain high alpha even if presented with various sensory stimuli during meditation.
The research that has been conducted on biofeedback training has mainly recorded alpha waves from the occipital areas of the cortex. The high amplitude low frequency alpha patterns have been found to shift from the occipital region at the rear of the head to central and frontal regions. Little biofeedback training has been attempted in the central and frontal areas. Usually it is more difficult to develop alpha in these areas while it occurs naturally in most individuals in the occipital area. Even so, it may be possible with biofeedback training to achieve in a few months, what it often takes years of disciplined meditative practice to achieve. Both meditation and alpha control require passive attention, physical relaxation and a feeling of flowing with the inner and outer world.
Wallace and Benson (1972) in a study of subjects who practice "transcendental meditation" found physiological changes as well as increased alpha waves. This type of meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and does not require great periods of training. In this meditative state, Wallace and Benson found that their subjects manifested the physiological signs of a "wakeful, hypometabolic state." There were reductions in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, and the rate and volume of respiration. There was a slight increase in the acidity of the arterial blood, a marked decrease in the blood lactate level. The heart rate slowed, the skin resistance increased and the EEG pattern showed intensification of slow alpha waves with occasional theta wave activity. All of these findings are similar to those found in Yoga and Zen monks who have had fifteen to twenty years of experience in meditation. Perhaps alpha wave training may lead to the ability or produce these physiological changes in a short time span.
(page 318)
Kawin-Toomim(1972) says in this regard:
The possibility of using alpha control to reach "altered states of consciousness" is an exciting one ... To manipulate alpha is only to alter the occurrence of a natural state. This, apparently, is one of the things meditators do after years of training . . . It is tempting ... to think that ... training such patterns by the quicker, easier biofeedback methods will provide the same total subjective experience.
She also notes the bond which has been repeatedly established in these pages between self-actualization and the direction of psychotherapy:
Alpha feedback is a powerful tool for the psychotherapist. The possibility of training subjects at will to experience the deep reverie and increased ability to visualize as in "awake dreaming," often found in low frequency alpha and theta brain activity, is a valuable tool for psychotherapists who use these experiences with their clients.
Gellhorn and Kiely (Miller and others, 1973:488) believe that there are similarities between yoga meditation and REM sleep. They resemble hypnosis in the suspension of will, in cortical arousal combined with trophotropic relaxation in the muscles. There is also vivid perceptual imagery and the loss of the sense of time and space. Stoyva (Miller and others 1973:492) also reports that hypnagogic imagery associated with 4-7 hertz theta rhythm is of a similar nature, and associated with muscle relaxation. Green, Green and Walters (1970) associate this hypnagogic revery state with creativity. The common element here seems to be an opening of the conscious mind to the preconscious, and biofeedback appears to be a viable method of making this happen.
Section III of the 1972 Aldine Annual on biofeedback (Shapiro and others 1972:145-191) is devoted to the development of consciousness and creativity through biofeedback methods, containing articles by Budzynski on twilight states, Green on healing and creativity enhancement through alpha, and Nideffer on alpha and the development of human potential. Again, the testimony of this research is to the mutual relationship of these various processes.
It appears to us that the claims of alpha wave biofeedback to facilitate the mastery of meditation through operant conditioning techniques is an assertion which needs to be examined very seriously. After all, alpha wave training is a technique which may be used with any meditational approach. In this day of instant everything, it may even
(page 319)
be possible to speed up the process of self-actualization by such a means. At least the contingency deserves a careful exploration. From what has been said previously, it is obvious that the facilitation of the alpha state may not only bring one to the terminal of the "great computer," but that it will promote increased concentration, learning, and recall on the cognitive side, and pleasure and relaxation on the affective. There is not space here in this discussion on meditation to document these possibilities more fully, but there are good grounds for such speculation. We should not conclude, however, without at least one paragraph devoted to the relation between biofeedback and creativity.
4.43 Alpha and Creativity
There is perhaps some correlation between alpha-theta output and creativity. A state of reverie which is described by Green, Green, and Walters (1970) as a state of inward-turned abstract attention or internal scanning may be related to theta and low-frequency alpha. In this state there seems to be an increase of hypnagogic and dream-like images, pictures or words which must seem to spring into the mind. Many creative people such as writer Aldous Huxley, mathematician Poincare, and poet A. E. Housman, report that it is through a reverie state that their creative inspirations have come. Some researchers believe that creative persons have stumbled upon and then developed to a high degree the ability to visualize in the area in which they are creative.
Hard evidence on the relation of alpha generation to enhanced openness including creativity, ESP, and so forth, is not available. Honorton and Carbone (1971) failed to find a significant relationship between alpha generation and ESP. Lewis and Schmedler (1971) did find some relationship between high alpha and ESP, but they suggest that the relationship is not simple, and that each variable interacts with other factors. Engstrom and others (1970) in an experiment attempting the establishment of a relationship between EEG feedback training and hypnotic susceptibility concluded that alpha and hypnotic susceptibility are similar subjective states. This area would profit by more definitive research.
It is possible that both the euphoria and the alpha waves are mere epiphenomena indicating that the subject is in an altered state of consciousness which is particularly conducive to terminal access to the collective computer, and hence to telepathy, healing, precognition, and the rest of the psychic powers. Watson (1973:257) suspects that the connection between telepathy and the alpha rhythm is crucial, and cites the Russian experiments of Popov which indicated that
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each time telepathy occurred, alpha rhythms were found. He concludes (1973:256): "It seems certain that both telepathy and psychokinesis occur only under certain psychological conditions and that these are the ones marked by the production of brain waves of a particular frequency." The theta rhythm seems to be the physiological correlate of psychokinesis, and the alpha rhythm does the same for telepathy.
In concluding the proper place of alpha wave biofeedback in the continuum of this chapter, one is struck by the fact that the symptoms of the state are much more cognitive than otherwise, and that it tends to resemble more that of meditation than it does that of dissociation. All evidence of the earlier suggestibility of the trance state has been lost, except the "passivity," and far from there being an excursion of the ego, it is obviously present, and functioning. In these characteristics the alpha state can hardly be said to represent a type of developmental forcing, and perhaps the worst that can be said of it is that it is a technique in search of a rationale. Indeed, the evidence from research in this section is so persuasive that it suggests that the presence of alpha might be regarded as the boundary marker between the dissociative trance of developmental forcing, and the more positive states of creativity and psychedelia.
Chapter Four
THE SYNTAXIC MODE: CREATIVITY
John Curtis Gowan
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger . . . is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center to true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious men.
-Albert Einstein
4.11 General Introduction
We come now to the culmination of our search, for if there is any fit vessel in the universe to receive the numinous element in propria persona it is the human consciousness in the syntaxic mode. All that has gone before, the trance miracles of the prototaxic, and the magical art of the parataxic, are like the dumb show and the music before the play - the mere overture to the cognitive powers and the affective glories of the syntaxic mode. Creativity is the popular name for the mode, as were trance and art for the earlier ones, but this mode is creative with a vengeance. For it displays besides creativity, escalation, emergent capacities undreamed or unheard of before, intuition, transcendence, ecstasy, metamorphosis, and salvation.
The syntaxic mode embraces three levels or stages. The first is the creative (including mediation) which we identified earlier (1972) as the sixth developmental stage, and the occultists call the third state of consciousness. This level generally involves the ordinary state of consciousness, although there may be momentary intuitive intimations of something higher. Siddhis (psychic powers) are generally absent, although a few are found in creative states, some in biofeedback and orthocognition, and perhaps more in meditation. We identify five procedures in this level:
tantric sex- 6,
creativity-5,
biofeedback-4,
orthocognition-3,
and meditation-2.
The numbers are jhana (page 246) numbers, originally applied as positive numbers to the highest eight procedures in the syntaxic mode; we have taken the liberty of extending them downwards into negative numbers so as to characterize as accurately as possible each procedure successively. The affective thrill for tantric sex is, of course, orgasm, while for the rest of the procedures it is creative inspiration; all the procedures save tantric sex show an infusion of cognitive knowledge which comes from some other source than conscious accretion or rote learning. All this is shown graphically in Table VIII.
The next level we have called earlier (1972) the psychedelic (for mind expansion), and have identified as developmental stage 7. (The occultists call it the fourth state of consciousness). This level has the property that those in it experience a transient altered state of consciousness known as an ecstasy in which there is loss of self, time, or space, the infusion of a special knowledge, and purification of self. Siddhis are often seen. There are six procedures in this level (see Table VIII).
a) Response Experience (Jhana -1) (nature-mystic, oceanic, or peak experience);
b) Adamic Ecstasy (Jhana 0) ("cleansing of the doors of perception");
c) Knowledge ecstasy (Jhana 1) (illumination through special instant knowledge);
d) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 2) (contact with numinous element);
e) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 3) (rapture ceases);
f) Knowledge-contact ecstasy (Jhana 4) (all feelings cease).
This level is the purview of the mystic life. Finally there exists a highest level which we now call the unitive (earlier we had called it the illuminative). It is development stage 8, and the 5th level of consciousness for the occultists. Words fail to be of much use in describing this high level and its four procedures (Table VIII.) Those few who may dwell here are in a permanent altered state of consciousness, with attendant siddhis (which they evidently disdain to use). Since there are very few of them, and they shun publicity, we know very little about this level. Goleman says there are four procedures, all involving self-transcendence, and the last two Union. They are:
a) Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5) (consciousness of infinite space);
b) Transcendental contact (Jhana 6) (objectless infinite consciousness);
0 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7) (awareness of "no-thing-ness");
d) Transcendental Union (Jhana 8) (neither perception nor nonperception) (see Table VIII). (Page 247) Table VIII Properties of Syntaxic Procedures and Graces
Table VIII represents a primitive attempt to make synoptic sense out of Underhill (1960), Laski (1962), and Goleman (1972) in regard to the order of these higher procedures. It is probable that we have made errors of placement. Further, the table may discriminate for the sake of clarity in ways which are not found in practice (since many mystical experiences are mixed). Also there exist some minor disagreements. Goldman places meditation in occult state 5, while Laski denies that the response experience is a true ecstasy. (The
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testimony of many poets, and nature mystics would indicate that it is).
The essential feature of the syntaxic mode is the attempt to grasp the numinous element with the mind rather than with the body. It would perhaps be more accurate to state that this involves the cognition as well as the emotions, although the affective aspect culminates in ecstasy, another characteristic of the syntaxic state. Furthermore, the cognitive aspect is characterized by two specifics:
(1) an effort to relax or tranquilize the mind by some technique of interior quieting, in which there is diminution of perceptual intake. In Wordsworth's words:
And when upon my bed I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.
(2) Some orthocognitive structuring, which is involved less with the pantheon of ultimate reality than its relationship to the self, and to the world of space/time. The syntaxic mode is characterized by the richness and spectacularism of its emergent aspects found at successively higher procedures. Creativity and ecstasy are early examples of this, but there are others.
The issue here is the conscious disposition of prana or psychic energy. Imagine that you are at a water pipe through which water is flowing under pressure (Figure IX). In front of you are several spigots; the pipe then ascends vertically and is open ended at the top where there is a shower head. What do you do to keep from getting soaked? Obviously you open one or more of the spigots in front of you. This is a fair analogy to the flow of pranic or psychic energy. The spigots available to you are (1) sexual outlet, (2) creative outlet, (3) orthocognition, (4) meditative outlet, or the shower- head (psychic tricks). If you want to keep dry you must open one or more of the spigots, depending through which of them you wish to express psychic energy. If you shut them all off, the shower-head will overflow, which is why occult literature since time immemorial has prescribed sexual abstinence as a preparation for paranormal feats, (not because sex is bad, but because it discharges psychic energy). If psychic energy is discharged through creative or meditative spigots it can be used in individually or socially useful ways, and the more we open any of the spigots the less likely we are to get soaked by the shower head. This again shows why it is not a wise thing to get involved in occultism before one is creative or meditative.
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Fig. IX Flow of Prana or Psychic Energy
We have hitherto described the individual units comprising a mode as "procedures" because they are choices by which men can proceed. Due to a remarkable emergent property of the syntaxic mode, we must (for clarity) change this nomenclature in the middle of the mode. For while the activities of the creative level are "procedures," the activities of the psychedelic and unitive levels are not, since they are not within the conscious choice of man but come to him in some sudden, adventitious, and transcendent manner as if (to revert to religious language), by the grace of God. We have accordingly called them "graces." Poulain called them "The Graces of Interior Prayer" in his book of the same title (1912).
There are fifteen procedures/ graces in the syntaxic mode. Unlike those in the earlier modes, these are developmental and form a hierarchy of mind expansion from formal operations to the infinite. They might therefore be called degrees of expansion or development, as each successive procedure/grace is likely to possess emergent qualities. Because of this aspect the procedures/ graces are divided
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into three stages - the lowest known as the creative, the middle as the psychedelic and the highest as the unitive. These stages as we have elsewhere indicated (1972) are also developmental, being the cognitive aspects of the Eriksonian intimacy, generativity, and ego integrity affective components.
Since we write from a background of Christian culture, and since most of the literature of mysticism with which we are familiar comes from that culture, we perforce are reduced to quoting and using the language of religion which involves the concept of personal God. This usage does not signify a change in our views from the impersonal aspects of the numinous element or a reversion to orthodox Christianity; it is merely a necessity forced upon us by circumstances.
4.12 The Numinous Element As The Collective Preconscious
It is now time to take another look at that shadowy concept introduced in Chapter One - the numinous element. We have gained enough perspective to look at the concept more thoroughly, and we are also in a better position to make a rational explication. The numinous element in the prototaxic mode is such a dreadful mysterium tremendum that the uncanny emotion aroused by it precludes careful thought. In the parataxic mode, the numinous element is veiled and accessible aesthetically rather than cognitively. But in the syntaxic mode, as a result of creative strivings in the individual, the numinous element appears in a less fearsome guise as the collective preconscious. Let us trace the mechanism through which this appears in some detail.
Let us imagine a mathematical function f(x,y,z) in three dimensions. This can be intuited as a physical surface, such as a rolling landscape with hills, dales, etc. It is possible to take partial derivatives of this function in any one of three dimensions, and these partials will be very different from one another (for example, one partial might be a line running up a hill, and another at right angles might run down a valley). In a roughly similar way, when a superordinate reality such as the numinous element is "partialed" into a concept which we (locked in space, time, and personality) can visualize, it can be done in several ways. In the next paragraph we have detailed one method. But another is that the numinous element appears in each of us as the "collective preconscious." We use the term "collective preconscious" instead of Jung's "collective unconscious" because research has accumulated since indicating that this aspect of the psyche can sometimes be available to the conscious mind. Indeed, its availability results in creativity. Since we shall have much use for this concept, it is desirable to discuss it in detail, and this is done in section 4.3.
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In order properly to understand the syntaxic contact with the numinous element it is necessary to clarify a hierarchy of relationships which are difficult to explicate since we are not used to this kind of thinking. We can best do this through analogy to the mathematical process of integration, which involves summation of the area under a curve and its expression in a higher dimension. Thus involved in integration is the concept of transcendence on reaching for a higher function with greater degrees of freedom. (An example would be the relationship between an individual life and the cycle of reincarnations of which it is but one instance.) To such a cycle we give the name "entity." Again summating "entities" we reach another integration which we believe are archetypes. It is obvious that the direction of motion here is from the personal self to the numinous element.
Now let us similarly take a space-time event in the physical world and likewise integrate it over time and space. We get then what we have referred to previously (3.41) as the "durative topocosm" (roughly the spirit of the climate of an area). Integrating again creates an archetypic analog which we shall identify as "mythic devas." We have again moved from the physical towards the numinous element.
All this can be set down in Figure X, in which God is the triple integral of man with respect to time, space, and personality. Now, what is the pay-off from all this hard thinking?
It is immediate. In place of the lightning-like, ego-paralyzing discharge of the numinous element energy in the prototaxic mode, or the veiling of the numinous element in the parataxic mode, we now have constructed a series of "step-down" voltage transformers interposed between the individual mind and the numinous element which can safely discharge its awesome power in useful ways, just as the various transformers interposed between household electrical circuits and the high voltage electricity of the high-tension line can change potential destructive energy into useful power,
The advantage in this complicated mechanism is that the human ego can remain conscious and therefore profit from the contact cognitively.
At each level, the particular function contains an infinity of possibilities or potentialities which are expressed at the next lower (differential) level as a series of wavelike pulses. And the function of orthocognition is to select which of these many potentialities we choose to manifest in the world of our self-concept. Such a view is incredibly optimistic for it gives us a purchase on the durative topocosm of events which allows us to select from an infinity of potential events those particular ones which we choose to have actualized in our vivency. It is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of this concept; for this reason, the reader is encouraged to reread this section at this time. We shall expand on the practical possibilities of this principle under section 4.5 on orthocognition.
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Table X Successive Integrations of Person and Thing
Figure X is also useful in considering the "three illusions" (section 4.13), since it involves a transcendence of ordinary time. One of the striking aspects of all behavior which relates to the numinous, prototaxic, parataxic, or syntaxic is this peculiar "melting" of clock time, which time appears to be a property of the ordinary state of consciousness. For example, quoting Eliade on the attempt of the primitive to "break away from profane time into the Great Time" which is the essence of mythical behavior, Greeley (1974:46) says:
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The ecstatic experience. . . . is an attempt to recapture a Great Time or primordial time or mythical time by breaking away from the present time.
In comparing the three modes in regard to their attempts at time transcendence, Greeley (1974:47) notes that there are similarities between trance and ecstasy for "in both, ordinary time and place are suspended." He then again quotes Eliade (1967:71-2) who states: "The ecstasy re-actualizes. . . . what was the initial state of mankind."
We have the testimony of the mystic Simone Weil (Waiting on God) on the fact that mystic experience is a sudden "integration" of this kind when she says:
At times the very first words tear my thoughts from my body and transport it to a place outside space where there is neither perspective nor point of view. The infinity of the ordinary expanses of perception is replaced by an infinity to the second and sometimes to the third degree. . . .
The issue of time transcendence is essentially a religious one: As Ellwood (1973:72) puts it: "A touchstone of meaning in any religion is its handling of man's experience of living in time." He points out that different religions deal differently with the problem: one way is the technique of meditation and mysticism which attempts to transcend time in the eternal now; another evangelical model holds up the archetypal figures of a messiah or a "Great Time" in which one tries to live, as one becomes convinced of the "imminent end of the present age."
Ellwood (1973:17) points out that there are two ways in which religion attempts to transcend time:1
The first is mysticism which creates an interior psychological time so divorced from exterior clock ... time that ideally it does not move at all, but remains in an eternal now of bliss. The second is apocalyptic, which lives for a moment when, by divine intervention from without, time in all its destructive aspects will be demolished. . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us start with the equation for the location of a physical object in Einsteinian space-time: W2 = X2 + y2 + Z2 - C2T2, where X, Y, Z, are space coordinates, C is the velocity of light and T is the time coordinate. Analysis of this equation provides us with the proportion that time (page 254)
is to space as "i" (the square root of -1) is to 1. Now "i" multiplied by itself is -1, so that in a metaphoric sense we can say that the time dimension is "half" a space dimension. Curiously one finds this out intuitively. We have full intuition of the three spatial dimensions, but we cannot intuit the fourth dimension, so we experience it as "time." Furthermore this experience is not full; it is partial, for we are on a one way street indicated by "time's arrow" which allows us always to experience duration as getting later and later, but never the opposite.
Such consideration suggests that what is not fully intuited can most easily be transcended, and this is precisely what we find when in the presence of the numinous element - "time begins to melt around the edges." Furthermore, it is also curiously suggestive that the concept "three and one half" (three spatial dimensions and half a time dimension) keeps turning up again and again. Item: the Kundalini serpent power is said to be wrapped three and one half times around the lowest chakra center: (liberation consists in unwrapping the pranic power and sending it up the spine: a rather nice metaphor when one thinks it through). Item: Toynbee found in his study of history that the rally-rout theory proceeds through three and one half cycles. In the cocoon of life we potential butterflies sleep in a physical net which secures us fully in three dimensions; but in the fourth dimension (which we intuit as time) we are not restrained as securely and that is where the ball of string starts to unwind.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past
If all time is eternally present . . .
says T. S. Eliot in "Burnt Norton." Sri Aurobindo was very clear that time was one of the first aspects to unravel when one became "orientated" or enlightened. His biographer Satprem notes (1968:96) that as we become psychologically conscious "the most immediate" experience is that "of always having been and of being forever." For this awakening, as he says elsewhere (1968:268) involves "global vision, undivided vision, and also eternal vision." It is therefore "the conquest of time." But language itself is so entangled in time that we cannot properly speak of the noumenon, for as he again declares, (1968:297):
It is a perpetual beginning which is not anywhere in time; when we say 'first the eternal, then the becoming' we fall into the illusion of spatio-temporal language. . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(page 255) We have discussed elsewhere (Gowan 1974:134-7) the gentling of the preconscious which is one of the guises in which the numinous element presents itself to the individual. It starts in childhood as the traumatic "not-me" of Harry Stack Sullivan (see section 2.1) presented in the prototaxic mode; it continues as archetype motivating dream, myth, ritual, and art in the parataxic mode, and finally comes to conscious thought as the preconscious source of creativity in the syntaxic mode.
One can imagine this separate reality as veiled from our normal state of consciousness, so that in the prototaxic mode we must dissociate somewhat to come in contact with it, while in our reality it appears to exist (as Troward noted) in a hypnotized state, embedded in the psyche of each of us. Because of its plenary and numinous quality, such an entity will create grandiose effect; because of the dissociative chasm, these effects generally first appear in prototaxic and parataxic form. Hence the supernatural beings of archetype, myth, and fairy tale, and the enactive ritual, dance, and mimetic movements of primitive society. But creativity and the syntaxic mode is the surfacing of this element in consciousness.
We now are in a position to appreciate that the numinous element is truly like the "Smoking Mirror" god of the Aztecs; it presents itself to us in whatever guise the level of our minds is able to accept. For the savage and the immature, it is the mysterium tremendum full of sound and fury; for the image maker, it is full of image-making; for the man who is finally able to think, it reflects creative and psychedelic glories.
The numinous element is not personal. It is like a genie in a bottle in needing release by the conscious personal mind in order to assume its full and powerful service. Like a genie it does not belong to the one who is using it, but for short periods of time gives him access to the whole of human knowledge and experience, as if he were connected to the terminal of a giant computer. In addition, being the inverse of nature, it controls not only the autonomic nervous system, and hence the mental and physical health of the individual, but also all other elements represented by the self-concept, in short, the natural environment. It is one of life's supreme paradoxes that all of the substantives modified by the adjective "my" are controlled by an entity which is absolutely impersonal. Powerful and "awe-full" as is this impersonal entity, it is also property under the control and direction of our conscious rational minds if we choose to exercise this regnancy. This control of the species mind gives us dominion
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over every aspect of our environment including our future evolution, and since it makes man a co-creator, is actually the highest function of self-consciousness.
McGlashlan (1967:116) puts it this way:
It is, after all, no new idea that the dreaming mind can be equated with a crucial mutation of consciousness. In the Bardo Thodol it is said that in the Fifth Stage of the world's development, a stage not yet actualized, "Ether" will dawn in the consciousness of man. This is the kind of statement from which contemporary educated minds turn away in immediate distaste. The word "Ether" used in such a context evokes memories of dusty and discredited systems of thought about the structure of the universe, or even less acceptably, recalls the woolly abstractions of Theosophy. But this is mere semantic prejudice. The psychical attributes of "Ether" as conceived and defined by the Lamas are, in modern terms, precisely those of the Deep Unconscious. They believed, in fact, that what we call the Unconscious is a "transcendental" consciousness higher than normal consciousness, and as yet undeveloped; and that it will become the active consciousness of the next stage of the world's development, which they estimated would occur in the twentieth century. This is at least an intriguing anticipation, across the intervening centuries, of the increasing attention now paid to dreams and the unconscious.
Interestingly, the Russians approach the same concept from another angle. Berdyaev says (1944:57):
Geniality (in the Russian, not English sense) is not to be identified with genius. Geniality is the whole nature of man; it is its intuitive creative relation to life. Genius, on the other hand is the union of this nature with a special gift.... The image of God in man belongs to geniality.
The translator of Berdyaev notes (1944:4) that the Russian word sobornost is the despair of all translators from Russian. "Altogetherness" would come nearest its meaning. It is the dynamic life of the collective body. Berdyaev, himself, says (1944:68):
There is only one acceptable meaning of sobornost and that is the interpretation of it as the interior concrete universalism of personality, and not the alienation of conscience in any kind of exterior collective body whatever. The free man is simply the man who does not allow this alienation. (page 257) That this individual empathy for and participation in communitas is not equivalent to individual absorption in the collective state is clearly stated by Berdyaev (1944:201) as follows:
In this connection the principal difference between sobornost and collectivism is to be seen. Ecclesiastical sobornost has in history often assumed forms of human slavery and the denial of freedom ... but the actual principle of Christian sobomost cannot but be personalist. Sobornost as spiritual communality is to be found in the subject not the object; it denotes a quality of the subject, the disclosure of universality in him.
Regarding the impersonal character of the numinous element Pearce (1971:46) says:
Attributing characteristics of personality to this function is a projection device which turns the open end into a mirror of ourselves, trapping us in our own logical devices.
It is important to insist upon the impersonal aspect of the collective preconscious, because this gives our concept of it a machine-like quality (something like a giant computer), which stresses its latency (until acted upon by the conscious will), and also its accessibility (to any conscious will which gets to the computer terminal). This machine-like quality of "subjectivity" or carrying out of any suggestion impressed upon it contrasts with its numinous quality which evokes awe and dread in the archaic man which remains in each of us. That qualities ascribed to Deity and to a machine can reside in the same entity is a mind-stretching concept, but it will be helpful to remember that the phrase "deus ex machina" has had a history since classical times. It is also helpful to remember that this entity is also an aspect of the Eigenwelt or inner world of man, and hence we are looking at a much more humanistic view of cosmology, and to put it crudely a "machina ex deo."
4.13 The Three Illusions Revisited
It is now time again to look at "the three illusions" of section 1.3which the conscientious reader may here wish to reread. If he will do so now he will see that Shakespeare truly prophesied when he wrote The Tempest, IV:I:
Our revels are now ended; these our actors
As I foretold you - were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all that it inherit, shall dissolve
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind: we are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (page 258) "The three illusions" - space, time, and personality - constitute the prison wherein consciousness is incarcerated. And the Ego locked into this prison does not know at first that any other state is possible. But when through orthocognition2 these restrictions are perceived as the illusions which constitute and define our present normal state of consciousness, then this more accurate view of reality gives us the power to intuit what other, and more liberated states of consciousness, unknown to us previously, may be like. And this expanded understanding allows us to appreciate the freeing aspects of altered states of consciousness. For whether in trance or meditation, their first effect is to free consciousness from space, free it from time, and free it from the little selfish ego.
Let us listen to Symonds (Brown, 1895) as quoted by James (1902:246):
One reason why I disliked this kind of trance was that I could not describe it to myself. I cannot even now find words to render it intelligible. It consisted in a gradual but swiftly progressive obliteration of space, time, sensation, and the multifarious factors of experience which seem to qualify what we are pleased to call our Self. . . . Often I have asked myself with anguish . . . which is the unreality?
Campbell (1974:33) points out that Schroedinger (1967) the great physicist, confronted with the same question, proposed the same simple but radical solution: he equated subject and object and stated that the "I" who observes the universe is the same "I" who created it, so that the concept of separate "I's" is a myth.
Space is filled with things; time is filled with events, and personality is filled with persons. Things, events, and persons constitute the realia of nature, the class of substantives, the plenum of phenomena. They comprise the objects of the normal state of consciousness. They are no more substantial than their defining parameters; for space, time, and personality define the normal state of consciousness; indeed, they specify it.
A real, three-dimensional man walks along the street, casting a two-dimensional shadow on the building. Which is more real, man or shadow? Now imagine that this two-dimensional shadow casts
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a one-dimensional shadow of its own, and further, that this one-dimensional shadow in turn casts a shadow which is a zero-dimensional point. How would you compare man and point? In a similar manner ultimate reality casts a shadow of itself in space, in time, and in personality. We are that dancing, weaving penumbral point, a zero-dimensional shadow thrice removed from multi-dimensional reality, whose antics can no more be explained by "our" own history, than the behavior of a shadow can be explained by investigating shadow instead of substance.
If our mortal condition is one of being locked into the triple prison of space, time, and personality, and if mystic ecstasy can offer a glimpse of freedom, then it is appropriate to ask if in such states there is not loss of space, time, and the sense of self. The answer is that reports of mystic states are notable for exactly these openings, (see Sections 4.72 and 4.73).
Since the orthocognition3 in "the three illusions" is so enlightening, it may be expected to occasion profound changes in affective response. These attitudinal changes are in line with the Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia Objectives of Education in the Affective Domain (1964) which are receiving, responding, valuing, conceptualization, and value complex. Because of the importance of the "three illusions" construct, it is worth while going through this process in detail.
The initial state is one of non-reception. When the concept of "the three illusions" is first presented, it is rejected as "impossible." Then the idea is entertained on an intellectual plane only. All of a sudden, it hits one affectively, and is "received." The force of this emotional impact is hard to describe discursively; it really must be felt. It appears to involve some kind of interior reorganization: all of a sudden a whole new way of looking at things is gained. Before we were confined, and knew it not; now we know we are in a prison of time, space, and personality, and recognize there is something greater outside. When Miranda first finds out that there are other men than her father alive (and presumably more affectively interesting) she exclaims: "Ah, brave new world! that hast such creatures in it!" And this is precisely the feeling of the individual that Shakespeare has described. This "reception" is first diffident, then more complete. It spreads like a Kohlberg "decalage" over the entire emotional area.
Next comes response involving action and a change of behavior. Because all things are seen differently, one responds differently. The response is first halting, then more and more ardent. Strong attitudinal change is evident in changed behavior noticeable to others. One becomes an enthusiast, centering one's attention more and more on the new concept.
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Response leads to the next level: valuing, in which the affective aspect reaches its height in what may appear to be excesses of emotion and action. Such a stage is akin to being infatuated with love or fanatically obsessed by religion. The heart seems to be enflamed, and psychic epiphenomena may be noted. It may be time to cool the ardor of the affective domain by resort to more prosaic activities. This "cooling" should lead to the next level of conceptualization, where the new interest becomes somewhat integrated with older loyalties and some sort of a hierarchy of values begins to be established. This sorting out is completed in the final step where a value complex (or reconciliation between values) which results in a working philosophy of life, becomes evident.
The fish does not realize that water is rare in the universe, that what he considers his natural environment is an anomaly in many ways, and that he himself is an early evolutionary form. In the same way we do not realize that our normal state of consciousness with its three apparent (but illusionary) properties of location in the space of the physical world, location in time, and location in personality is also an anomaly, and that we are likewise an early evolutionary form. As the function of water is to provide an environment in which the fish may find himself and develop, so the function of the normal state of consciousness is to allow the developing ego-consciousness to be oriented in space, time, and personality, as a kind of matrix in which there can be escalation of consciousness from the prototaxic mode through the parataxic mode to the syntaxic mode. The differentiation and focusing of this consciousness from a dim generalized consciousness of flora, and the more particularized but still undifferentiated consciousness of fauna, is one of the chief tasks of human development and evolution. But this should not blind us to the fact that the normal state of consciousness is a kind of prison (perhaps a better analogy would be a confining matrix like a seed bed for sprouts), and that ultimate reality is completely outside it.
Einstein understood this well, when he said (N.Y. Times March 29, 1972):
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "Universe." A part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security. (page 261) 4.14 Right Cerebral Hemisphere Function
In the bridgework which science and mysticism are building to span the chasm which separates them, it is now appropriate to notice a remarkable development from the scientific side. This has to do with the physiological investigation of the differential functions of the right cerebral hemisphere. Although this study is veritably in its infancy, enough has already occurred so that the jocular crack: "God dwells in the right hemisphere" may have more truth than humor it in. To investigate this subject properly it will be necessary to review a bit of elementary physiology.
The brain is composed of two cerebral hemispheres, each of which governs the motor activities of the other side of the body. The two hemispheres appear to work as dual controls, being joined by a massive conduit of nerves known as the corpus callosum. About 1950 Myers and Sperry discovered that if the corpus callosumwere cut, each hemisphere could function independently as if it were a complete brain. This discovery led to a number of intriguing questions such as what are patients like who have had this operation? and are there differential hemisphere functions?
Sperry and Gazzaniga (Gazzaniga, 1957) conducted tests to show the differential function in split brain patients. These showed that for some reason, the left side of the brain quickly assumed the normal functions of speech and writing, and that the right side was unable to speak and write. The right side, however, is not without intelligence. When a patient feels fruit with his left hand in a photographer's change muff in which there are (for example) two apples and an orange, he cannot say what the fruit is, but he can signal that the two apples are alike and the orange is different. The right hemisphere of such patients also handled spatial relations better than the left. It also appears from other research to handle holistic concepts and creative imagination better. Gazzaniga (1972) summarizes his research by saying "While the corpus callosum is intact we have our normal sense of conscious unity." Sperry (1968) in a previous article has discussed the function of hemisphere disconnectedness in removing unity from conscious experience.
We call attention to the "visual image" aspect of the right hemisphere functioning, because the "visual image" keeps occurring throughout this volume as a herald of the perception of the numinous. It is found in telepathy, healing, orthocognition, and creativity. Downing (1973)
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in doctoral study noted three important characteristics associated with creative inspiration: (a) task-irrelevant thinking, (b) experienced as an autonomous phenomenon, and (c) in the form of a visual image.
Ornstein (1973) declares that physiology has now provided in right and left hemisphere research the explanation of the two modes of consciousness, rational and intuitive. The left hemisphere is largely involved in analytic thinking, speech, and logic, and the sequential processing of information. The right hemisphere specializes in spatial orientation, artistic ability, body awareness, facial recognition, and integrating material in a holistic, creative, and simultaneous manner. We find this digital-analog computer model continually popping up to explain the right-left hemisphere differentiation.
Analogic communication with its roots in an archaic period of evolution is more generally valid than the relatively recent, more abstract digital mode of verbal communication. Wherever relationship is the central issue of communication, digital language is almost meaningless. Wherever relationship is the central issue there is a reliance on analogic communication which is very little changed from the analogic inheritance handed down to us from our mammalian ancestors. Man is the only organism gifted with the use of both the analogic and the digital modes of communication; and has found the use of these modes of communication to be in a complementarity. There is a great difficulty, as man, in his necessity to combine these two languages must constantly translate from the one into the other. (Watzlawick 1967:67):
Digital language has a highly complex and powerful logical syntax but lacks adequate semantics in the field of relationship, while analogic language possesses the semantics but has no adequate syntax for the unambiguous definition of the nature of relationships.
Fischer (1974) reports:
It has been known for some time that the left hemisphere - the "dominant" in most right-handed and in two-thirds of the lefthanded people9 - functions as a digital, analytical, sequence perceiving, and field articulating brain hemisphere concerned with speech, language, writing, and arithmetic; while the "minor" or right hemisphere is in charge of analogical, synthesis-oriented, non-verbal information processing visual-spatial gestalts and fields, metaphoric signification through intuition, imagery, and music.10 During most ordinary activities of our daily routine (i.e., when neither hyper- nor hypo-aroused) we may "feel free" to shift from
(page 263) the cognitive mode of the "major" or Aristotelian (an Apollonian) hemisphere to that of the "minor" or Platonic (a Dionysian) hemisphere and vice versa.11 While a hemisphere-specific task is solved by the appropriate hemisphere, the activity of the other is repressed or inhibited. Moreover, Aristotelian logic and language may be interhemispherically integrated with Platonic imagery. But when levels of subcortical arousal are raised (as during creative, hyperphrenic, catatonic and ecstatic states) or become lowered (as in the hypo-aroused meditative states),12 there is a gradual shift of information processing from the Aristotelian to the Platonic (cortical) hemisphere. I posit that such loss of Aristotelian freedom to make rational decisions is implicit in the findings of Goldstein and Stolzfus13 who claim that states of stimulation, excitation, anxiety, and hallucination correspond to a progressive narrowing of interhemispheric EEG amplitude differences with eventually complete reversal of their relationships. These findings are in agreement with and account for the non-verbal, visual-spatial and audio-spatial symbolic nature of dreams and hallucinations and we may now describe dreams and hallucinatory trips as truly exciting voyages from the rational, Aristotelian cognitive mode into the intuitive, metaphorical, and timeless spaces of the Platonic hemisphere.
Hence the source of imagination may be found in those hallucinatory and meditative states of self-awareness during which visual-spatial symbols and meaning become the ordering structure and function of in-sight. During these states the Aristotelian laws of "symmetry," "identity" and "tertium non datur" lose their validity: time may be reversible, things and signs may become symbols for other meanings; in short, the prevailing "laws" strangely resemble those which govern the realm of subatomic particle physics. [His footnotes]
Even the turning left or right of eye or head movements during thinking and problem-solving may indicate which side of the brain is operating. Bakan (1971) related such movements to right or left hemisphere dependency. He noted that left movers have higher hypnotic susceptibility scores, emit more alpha waves under controlled conditions, all of which would tend to be compatible with right hemisphere dominance. It also appears that the right hemisphere may function better at low levels of stimulus arousal, such as an altered state of consciousness. Further research in this area has been done by Kinsbourne (1972). This section represents only cursory notice of an emerging science
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which is still in its infancy. Due both to the primitive state of the art, and the lack of expertise of the writer, it is very far from complete. But at least, the reader is put on notice that important discoveries, linking physiology with some of the more esoteric aspects of mind, are now in the making.
4.15 Siddhis4
4.151 General
In the process of mind-expansion man acquires, as a byproduct of his development, the possibility of some unusual powers. These powers are known as siddhis, seldom seen naturally, but are said to be "developed" by yogis and others as a result of spiritual training. Indeed, the beginning of these matters may be seen in creativity, and are discussed in section 4.37; the siddhis also are related to the paranormal aspects of trance (section 2.4) except that in the syntaxic mode it is not necessary to go into trance to induce them. There is an almost universal feeling among those versed in these areas that while psychedelic mind expansion is desirable, psychic powers such as the siddhis are distractions and temptations on the road to development, and that their cultivation is not in one's best interest. Huxley (1945:260) reports that "The masters of Hindu spirituality urge their disciples to pay no attention to the siddhis, or psychic powers, which may come to them unsought, as a by-product of one-pointed contemplation. The cultivation of these powers distracts the soul from Reality. . . ."
One of the reasons for this injunction is that the cultivation of such powers serves to entrench the ego, whereas the process of deliverance from the triple prison of time, space, and personality involves the transcendence of the personal ego. One of the best reasons for the triple monastic vow is that the acquisition of power before one has lost the selfish ego may place one in a lotus land where, having acquired such powers, one never wishes to renounce them.
The siddhis can be looked upon as a transitional stage in the general process of rapid change which causes "unstressing."
Unstressing is caused by the beginning of an energy flow through the body of an individual who is not yet at a high enough level to accommodate to the pranic energy properly. It offers resistance, and this resistance is in the form of unstressing symptoms.
From what has been discussed in Chapter 2, we are now in a position to order the symptoms of rapid progress towards enlightenment starting from a base of unregeneracy and nearly total ill mental health as follows:
1. the Boisen panic-reaction symptom of positive disintegration; (page 265) 2. severe somatic unstressing, bodily twitching and movement;
3. moderate unstressing, generally confined to vocalization, such as the Jackins syndrome of yelling, crying, laughing, etc.;
4. light unstressing (such as sighing); in meditation, distracting thoughts;
5. access phenomena, momentary extended pure awareness siddhis;
6. witnessing in sleep;
7. pure awareness.
We may therefore note that whereas the table I is a taxonomy of distance along the developmental path, the description above is really a taxonomy of the speedalong the same path, with speed being indicated by the degree of presenceof the unstressing and level being indicated by the kindof unstressing. Or mathematically put, if one calls the developmental level "x," then the presence of unstressing phenomena is the first derivative of "x." From which it looks as though the phrase "all deliberate speed" was seconded by the Supreme Court from an even higher source.
If siddhisare akin to the relativistic effects of speed on a moving body, it reinforces the psychic dictum that they are adventitious phenomena and should not be sought or paid attention to. Our interest in them is really almost as prurient as our fascination with the revealing of a female dancer's thighs as she whirls during a polka. But like those shapely thighs, the siddhis do reveal a fundamentalform - in their case the transcendence of the laws of physics by the more general laws of metaphysics.
According to Mookerje (1966:143), the kundalini power which in ordinary folk is absorbed in bodily function, can be released and transformed until its highest sublimation results in nirvanic bliss. As the kundalini current rises through each chakra center, the individual enters a new stage of consciousness. Intense heat is generated by the passage of the kundalini energy through the successive chakras. It is our guess that embarkation upon any procedure of the syntaxic mode begins this power release. We further hazard that one of the occult values of creative performance is that the kundalini power (prana) is absorbed by the creative outlet, and that hence the psychic heat and other psychic effects are not seen. This provides a rather safer route to enlightenment.
The flow of prana through an unregenerate and unenlightened person can be compared to the flow of electricity through a coil of high resistance. There is a common result: the generation of heat. Thus the bushman in trance perspires and says that his medicine is hot. George Fox takes off his boots in winter and wanders barefoot through Lichfield because of the heat in his feet.
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As we shall see in the section on orthocognition (4.5), there is a moral question involved in whether man should make any use of these powers, or whether there should be a delicate balance between a sparing use of them and a corresponding advance toward deliverance from the triple prison. The fact that they are often seen in advanced persons, who, however, are cautious in their employment, results in the fact that there is very little public display of these syntaxic effects, in contrast to the paranormal aspects of trance (section 2.4). In keeping with this policy, we shall downplay emphasis on this feature, particularly on the more spectacular aspects, and content ourselves with a mere enumeration and some citing. These categories are as follows:
1. (general);
2. ESP: telepathy (space); precognition, psychometry, and accelerated mental process (time);
3. auras, Kirlian photography;
4. healing and the anesthesia of pain;
5. psychic heat and control over fire;
6. clairvoyance, levitation, magical flight, OBE;
7. psychokinesis;
8. physiological aspects: breathing, kundalini, psychic sound; change in autonomic processes;
9. miscellaneous effects.
It is interesting to note that 5 represents power over fire and water (psychic heat), 6 represents power over earth, and 8 represents power over air (the four elements of ancient times). One can also look upon the siddhis as liberation from the strictures of time and space.
4.152 ESP
(a) Telepathy. Telepathy is a kind of intuition, a "direct knowledge of distant facts." It seems to be an evolutionary step which is gradually being acquired by man. (Prince, 1963:13, 55,119); (Myers, 1903:261ff); Sinclair (1971:128); (Weil, 1972:187); Gowan (1974:24).
(b) Precognition. Ability to foresee the future. One of the most compelling powers, because it clearly reveals that the numinous element is outside time. Hard for most to accept, although evidence is very universal. (Prince, 1963:68, 70, 73, 98, 101, 108, 110, 114, 121, 134-6, 190, 201, 202, 216, 255, 251) which contains the precognitions of some very famous people; (Fodor, 1964:21); (Gowan, 1974:25). Riviere (1973:53) declares that it is by the awakening of the heart chakra center that the liberation "which enables one to see the three forms of time, past, present, and future" comes about.
There may well be a difference between precognition of the future and determinism of that future. For as Huxley (1945:185) points out "Knowledge of what is happening now does not determine the event."
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Precognition of future events may be an invitation from the numinous to intervene in those events if they are untoward. Precognition seems to be a siddhi particularly applicable to jhana 0 and above, with the "de-clutching" of the ego from time. It may also be experienced in drug-induced psychedelia (Masters and Houston 1966:165).
(c) Psychometry. The ability to tell about an object's past upon handling it (Gowan 1974:25-6).
(d) Accelerated Mental Process (AMP). (See section 2.44),
4.153 Human Aura, Kirlian Photography
If indeed this subject is a siddhi, it is one which appears more easily explainable on physical principles, and also one which is more common than many others. We have placed it here because of the fact that the ability to see the human aura has in the past been said to be a sign of advancement either in the agent or the percipient. (The aura around the heads of saints would be an example.)
A pioneer in the study of the human aura from a scientific standpoint was Kilner (1911) who describes how with the aid of goggles enclosing an elixir of dicyanin B (pinacyanol) the human aura can be seen in a darkened but not black room. It consists of two parts, an inner aura of about four inches and an outer aura of about eight more. It is recognized with the rods of the eyes, and is composed of ultraviolet rays, looking grayish-blue. Kilner states (1911:37):
I believe that the rods in appropriate light are capable of receiving rays the wavelength of which is slightly shorter than that producing violet, and of translating them into visible light. In my opinion, we see the body's aura with the rods.
Kilner (Ibid:39) points out that the rods secrete rhodopsin which is split by light into vitamin A plus a protein; in the dark, rhodopsin is again built up from vitamin A plus the protein, and thus A is necessary for the regeneration of rhodopsin. Kilner (lbid:67) also noted a void between the aura and the body, which he identified as the "etheric double." Again (lbid:73) he notes that the aura fades upon death or loss of consciousness, and return of consciousness brings it back gradually. The outer aura haze is to the inner aura as the ectoderm is to the endoderm (lbid:79), hence the outer aura is connected with sex and the nervous system, and the inner with the alimentary system.
Kilner (lbid:84) believes that the outer haze is ultraviolet radiation. The inner aura, however, seems electromagnetic and can in some cases be magnetized. Both Kilner and Bagnall (1970) believe that the human aura is purely an objective and physical phenomenon,
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composed of physical emanations of weak intensity, mostly ultraviolet electromagnetic waves.
In their book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, Schroeder and Ostrander (1970) disclosed to the West the advances made by S. D. Kirlian and his wife in photographing auras, especially of finger tips by direct contact onto a high voltage, high frequency charged plate. (NOTE: The process is dangerous, and should not be attempted by amateurs). There appeared to be flares from the fingertips, and indeed from any living organism, such as a leaf. Perfection of the technique enabled the Kirlians to examine the effect in time, directly instead of taking photos, and this revealed that the aura seemed to be alive and moving.
Thelma Moss at UCLA took up this study and extended it to the "auras of healers." She has been able to show that the fingertip auras of both healer and patient change after the healing session (text and photos Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1972, section C, page 1), (see also Moss, 1972). This area is now in very rapid development, with the most authoritative book at the present moment being that of Krippner and Rubin (1973).
4.154 Healing and Anesthesia from Pain
Curiously, this is a subject about which the Hindus do not talk much, although Satprem (1968:113) notes that illness is "always the result of a wrong attitude," and that progress in yoga tends to free us from it. Healers, however, are found in every society, and many of them appear to be advanced individuals who do not need to go into a trance state to heal.
The Christian tradition, however, from its Founder onward, is an unbroken record of psychic or spiritual healing. Indeed, one of the chief tenets of Christianity, as established by Jesus and all of the early disciples, was the ability to heal. In various ways, this aspect has been carried on in the Church until the present. Catholic saints can only be canonized upon proof of such miracles. Laying-on-of-hands is an ancient rite of the church. Many modern religions, and most revivalists, have at their center the concept of healing through prayer. Since the literature in this area is large and available, we shall not attempt further notice of it, contenting ourselves with a few general observations.
Syntaxic healing (healing without trance) is a central part of orthocognition (sections 4.53, 4.54), and orthocognition as a sister procedure may in some respects be considered as a twin to creativity. So healing and creativity are two aspects of a single underlying motif.
At the present time there are a number of independent psychologically oriented attempts to understand the psychodynamics of healing (not as a miracle, but as evidence of natural power of which we
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are still mostly ignorant).5 Acupuncture is one such example. Psychosynthesis is another. The work investigating the auras of healers through Kirlian photography is a third, (section 4.153). Other associations and foundations investigating this area include:
1). The Human Dimensions Institute, Rosary Hills College, 4380 Main St. Buffalo, N.Y. 14226, (Jeanne Rindge, director);
2). The Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine, 314 Second St. Los Altos, Calif, 94022;
3). The Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas (Dr. E. E. Green);
4). Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) 34 W 35th St. NYC. also ARE Clinic, 4018 N. 40th St. Phoenix, AZ 85018.
Healing appears to be an early dividend of contact with the numinous element, no matter whether that contact is in trance (2.44) or by ritual (3.5), or in the syntaxic mode through orthocognition (4.5). Through these means, man possesses the method of restoring health and of making himself whole. Syntaxic healing involves preventative as well as therapeutic aspects; though these are never as spectacular, they are in the long run more important.
4.155 Power over Fire, Psychic Heat
These allied siddhis represent endothermic and exothermic pranic reactions; the former is more often seen in the prototaxic state, the latter in the syntaxic. Psychic heat seems to be caused by the ascent of the kundalini power; it is a commonly described yogic power (Evans-Wentz, 1967:158-9). It is claimed that some yogis can dry thirty sheets per night in this manner (Sivananda, 1971:156).
This heat is but a special aspect of the general problem of unstressing. Ward (1957:195-201) says:
First there is this indescribable sensation in the spine, as of something mounting up, a sensation which is partly pleasure and partly awe.... This was accompanied by an extraordinary feeling of bodily lightness . . . but it was also, somehow, a feeling of living more in the upper parts of one's body ...a certain rather peculiar awareness of one's head....
Laski (1962:78) speaking about mystic heat notes that Suso felt flame of intense heat in breast. Richard Rolle felt true heat in heart .6
The severe somatic unstressing involving tingling, shivers, and clicks are also seen under many allied conditions. Laski (1962:73) notes that during mystic ecstasy, references to tinglings and shivers are common. Her Q44 speaks of a "ringing that goes on," her Q54 "an electric sensation in the chest spreading over the whole body," her Q57 notes "something creeping up the spine." Berenson describes "an ideated tingling on and in my skin," L10 reports "the hair on my head tingling; shudders and shocks also sometimes appear."
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Laski (1962:88) quotes Houseman, J. The Name and Nature of Poetry (p. 47):
Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts because if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles(1) so that the razor ceases to act. This particular symptom is accompanied by a shiver down the spine; (2) there is another which consists of a constriction in the throat; (3) and a precipitation of water to the eyes; (4) and there is a third which I can only describe by borrowing a phrase from one of Keat's last letters where he says, speaking of Fanny Brawne "everything that reminds me of her goes through me like a spear." (5) The seat of this sensation is the pit of the stomach (i.n.o.).
One may note in this remarkable piece of somatic observation five separate effects: (1) horripilation, (2) kundalini, (3) globus hystericus, (4) gift of tears, and (5) solar plexus chakra center opening.
Laski (1962:258) quotes Custance regarding spine shivers and head clicks he got when creative ideas came. She says: "Here linked in the context of mental improvement are the shivers, the electric shocks, the feeling of something falling into place so often characteristic of ecstatic experiences."
If the reader will compare sections 2.23 on Unstressing and 2.62 on Religious Trances, he will find enough similarity to make it obvious that we are talking about different levels of the same process. Whether one sees this activity as "unstressing," the ascent of the kundalini, or as the spilling over or prana of psychic energy, really makes little difference. Even advanced yogis can feel similar sensations. Younghusband (1930:71) quotes Ramakrishna's reports of his trance:
Something rises with a tingling sensation from the feet to the head. So long as it does not reach the brain, I remain conscious, but the moment it touches the brain, I am dead to the outside world. I try to relate what I feel when it goes above the throat, but as soon as I think it over, up goes the mind with a bound, and there is an end to the matter.
One of the few novelists writing today who has an understanding of mystical experience is the Australian Nobelist White.7 (His Riders in the Chariot is a memorable account of four such persons.) In it (1964:134) he quotes an unnamed Hadisic work about a man meditating at night. His candle has just gone out:
. . . the light continued. I was greatly astonished because after (page 271) close examination I saw it was as though the light issued from myself. Saying "I do not believe it," he walked through the house and then lay down and covered himself up and the light continued.
Eliade (1964:412) declares:
The same continuity between ritual and ecstasy is also found in connection with another conception, which plays a considerable part in pan-Indian theology: tapas whose original meaning is "extreme heat," but which came to designate ascetic effort in general. Tapas is definitely documented in the Rig-Veda.... Prajapati creates the world by "heating" himself to an extreme degree through asceticism; he creates it by a sort of magical sweating. The "inner heat" or "mystical heat" is creative ... for example it creates the countless illusions or miracles of the ascetics or yogins.... Now inner heat forms the integral part of the technique of "primitive" magicians and shamans; everywhere in the world acquisition of "inner heat" is expressed by "mastery over fire," and in the last analysis by the abrogation of physical laws. . . .
Later in the same place Eliade tells us that this excess of heat was obtained "by holding the breath."
Greeley (1974:12) notes that some mystics see a pale blue light during ecstasy.
4.156 OBE, Traveling Clairvoyance, Levitation, Magical Flight
These related siddhis have to do with the movement of a vehicle of consciousness. While in levitation it does seem to be the body, it is most generally a conscious out-of-body experience (OBE) from which we get "traveling clairvoyance," and the yogic "magical flight." Riviere (1973:35) claims that these powers are gained by alerting specific chakra centers. Sivananda (1971:152) identifies the siddhi which makes this possible as "laghima." OBE and traveling clairvoyance have been widely noted in the west (Crookall, 1964, 1966, 1970, Muldoon and Carrington, 1951, 1970, Monroe, 1971, Gowan, 1974:1821), some incidents being in trance, but some without it. See also Evans-Wentz (1967:166).
Levitation is a more esoteric matter, although there exist several traditions of Christian saints who experienced it. In the East, it seems somewhat more common (David-Neel, 1971:208, Fodor, 1964:27-8). Maritain tells that the sacristan saw St. Thomas Acquinas levitated "nearly three feet off the ground" while in tearful prayer to the crucifix.
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Magical Flight is attributed to some yogis, in a manner similar to shamanistic powers. It is not clear, however, whether the physical body of the yogi is thus engaged, or whether it is a conscious OBE.
Eliade (1964:409) declares:
Buddhist texts speak of four different magical powers of translation, the first being to fly like a bird. In his list of siddhis obtainable by yogis, Patanjali cites the power to fly through the air.
Satprem (1964:67) quoting Sri Auribindo, says:
If we had not had thousands of experiences showing that the Power within could alter the mind, develop its powers, add new ones, bring in new ranges of knowledge, master the vital movements, change the character, influence men and things, control the condition and functioning of the body, work as a concrete dynamic force on other forces, modify events ... we would not speak of it as we do.
4.157 Psychokinesis
This matter has been discussed previously in section 2.46.
4.158 Physiological aspects: Breathing, Autonomic Processes, Kundalini, Psychic Sound
The common element here has to do with control of the body, particularly its autonomic nervous processes, until recently thought to be independent of man's conscious control. The Hindus tell us that this is accomplished through breathing exercises which start the kundalini power on its ascent of the spinal column. (Satprem, 1968:313) declares that it is pranic energy which is released, and there are many correspondences with acupuncture.
Recently there has been independent confirmation in the West of many of these processes (Houston, 1973; Green and others, 1971b; Wallace and others, 1971, 1972).
Laski (1962:79) notes: "The impression given by mention of changes in breathing seems to be . . . of a deep breath before the ecstasy, a holding of the breath at or up to the time of climax, and a need to take deep breaths afterwards."
Suso is cited as "heaving great sighs from depths of his soul." St. Augustine says, "We sighed and there we leave bound the first fruits of the spirit and returned to vocal expression."
Laski (1962:281) notes that the definition of inspiration is: a breathing in or infusion into the mind of some suggestion, idea, or creation.
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Psychic sound
Esoterically, sound seems to have some of the generating qualities of radiant light. The Hindus are very emphatic about the importance of basic sounds, such as AUM as generating entities; in particular the mantras are composed of such sounds. The prevalence of the "AM" sound in Sanscrit (as seen in the names of many letters of the alphabet) suggests that there is some kind of basic hum (perhaps associated with various frequencies), which represents some kind of "carrier frequency."
Westerners know very little about these matters, but "toning" (section 2.44) is one western example. It is also true that during developmental process, perhaps as the result of unstressing, one hears psychic sound. Laski (1962:84) points out that mystics very occasionally experience involuntary speech or cries during mystic tumescence (possibly a parallel to the involuntary cries of sexual tumescence). Speaking further of the noises heard during ecstasy, Laski (1962:218) notes that they are compared with water, wind, or thunder, or they may figure as voices in muffled communication as at a distance. Tennyson says that at this time he was hearing "the hum of men or other things talking in unknown tongues." 8
4.159 Miscellaneous Effects
Among the more notable are the creation of apparitions (David-Neel, 1970:60-2). This is known as a "tulpa" (see also Pearce, 1971:27), the power of invisibility (by stopping the sensory percepts of others) (David-Neel, 1971:303); the accelerated motion (lom-gom-pa) which allows yogis to traverse vast distances.
The eight major siddhis (Sivananda, 1971:152-3) involve diminution in size, increase in size, levitation and magical flight, increase in specific gravity, clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition and healing, invisibility, taming wild animals, and controlling others, and resurrection of the dead. There are also twenty-six minor siddhis, some repetitions of the eight major ones, and some (like turning base metal into gold, and finding hidden treasure) scarcely what one would expect from an enlightened person.
Mooney (1896:948ff), crediting Brown's Dervishes, discusses Sufi mysticism. He tells that through various spiritual and meditative exercises the dervish gains an internal spiritual power:
Among the practices of these powers is the faculty of foreseeing coming events; of predicting their occurrence; of preserving individuals from the harm and evil which would otherwise certainly result for them; of assuring to one person success over the machinations of another, so that he may freely attack him and prevail over him; of restoring harmony of sentiment between those who would otherwise be relentless enemies; of knowing when others devised harm against themselves, and through certain spells of preserving themselves and causing harm to befall the evil minded, and even of causing the death of anyone against whom they wish to proceed. All this is done as well from a distance as when near. (page 274) Dramatic powers such as the siddhis are very spectacular exhibitions of the regnancy of the numinous, but like other spectacular exhibitions, one may ask if all this is really necessary had there been better planning in the first place. One of the advantages of psychedelic control in the syntaxic mode is that one avoids problems and untoward circumstances rather than reacting to crises in a spectacular manner. It is certainly more foresighted to prevent the onset of problems than to resort to heroics as a last resort. One is reminded of the considered judgment concerning the charge of the Light Brigade. "It is magnificent, but is it war?"
4.2 TANTRIC SEX (Jhana -6) Discussion of the prototaxic mode ended with an anchor point of "higher" trance. Symmetry demands that discussion of the syntaxic mode begin with a prototaxic anchor point which we identify as tantric sex. While Easterners might deny that ritualized sexual intercourse is a major or even important part of tantricism, it seems otherwise to Westerners. For us there is no simpler or clearer way to explain tantric sex than to say that it refers to those aspects of sexual union which are beyond the modern9 meaning of the verb "to fuck." These aspects are explained by Donath (1971:85) as "the loss of oneself in the unity of love.. . a prototype of the ineffable spiritual experience of union with the Divine."
In a meaningful discussion of this subject, any Westerner must recognize that culture has prejudiced his mind in subtle ways that make difficult the more realistic Eastern view of sex. Honesty, therefore, requires the author to acknowledge cultural bias. His background and culture has not sufficiently prepared him for the concept that sexual intercourse can have spiritual significance. Christian teaching generally denigrates sex, at best as messy business necessary for human propagation, and at worst as sins of the flesh.
The ritualized tantric sexual act, even permitted to monks, involved the quiet union of male and female in an opposite sitting position
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in which, after entry, there is little if any motion, no ejaculation, and the position is sustained for long periods until the male loses his erection. There is thus no orgasm for the male - (Hindu writers never bothered to consider the female) - but there is continued communion of closeness and love. (A very similar practice, known as "karezza" was one of Noyes' directives to the Oneida, New York, utopian community). Since the woman is "consecrated" by ritual, and the man in effect worships her, the activity is essentially sacramental, that is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." The East does not regard sexual orgasm as unworthy, but they do regard it as a primitive use of kundalini power better reserved for the ascent of the kundalini up the spine with attendant siddhis.
Underhill (1930:367)says it well "As enfolded in the darkness with one we love, we obtain a knowledge far more complete than is conferred by the sharpest sight" so "The transcendent is perceived by contact not by vision," This is "to know" in the Biblical sense.
Harding (1966:112)puts the same idea:
There is a corresponding idea in Hindu marriage where the union of husband and wife accompanies, almost produces, a simultaneous union of the god Shiva with his consort, Shakti, on which the continuous creation of the universe depends. She continues quoting the prayer in the Anglican marriage service:
Oh God who has consecrated the state of matrimony to such an excellent mystery that in it is signified and represented the spiritual union betwixt Christ and His Church. She concludes:
From these examples it is obvious that the projection of the animus and anima is of the greatest importance . . . for through it the union of a man and a woman on earth is accompanied by or even brings about the union of the masculine and feminine potencies or principles in heaven.
Tantra teaches a conceptualization of the universe as a fundamental dualism of male and f emale, person-hood and object-hood. The personal element is considered male and is called purusha; the apersonal (female) principle is known as prakriti (nature). The Jaina Sutra declares that atoms are formed by the union of a minute amount of purusha (proton), surrounded by many small parts of prakriti (electrons). Thus in the microcosm we have a model of mutual attraction typified by sexual love at the human level. Accordingly, the union of purusha and prakriti creates the ultimate monad of pure
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consciousness. (Swedenborg says: "Sexual love is the purest energy of the divine state, for lovers in their embrace form one angel.") The tantric view, hence, is that sex is sacred and holy, being a prefiguration of the union of the personal and apersonal elements in the universe, (see Table X), or as a Christian mystic would say "the union of the soul with God."
Tantra is an entire religious philosophy of which sexuality is only a small part. It is also concerned with the release of the kundalini serpent force, which it avers is coiled three and one half times around the lowest chakra center in the genitals. When liberated by suitable techniques (dangerous without a guru), this pranic energy ascends the spinal column, producing psychic heat and siddhisas it passes through each higher chakra center. This upward journey continues until it reaches the highest chakra center in the head (the lotus), which allows the individual to shed his ego and unite with divinity.10
What is really being described here stripped of unconscious male chauvinism and the flowery language of the East is the onward course of the procedures and graces of this chapter of which tantric sex is the initial example. Each of the chakras represents a successive step in this ascent towards the re-integration of duality in the transcendent union of jhana 8 (section 4.84) in which time, space, and personality disappear in a final at-one-ment with divinity which is both transpersonal and trans-a-personal, and in which knowledge transmutes into being. This integration is the converse of the differentiation of creation, for when the All shall perceive the All, the All shall become the All.
Haich (1972:55) in a sensible discussion of these matters, puts the case clearly when she says:
Those who set out on the path of Yoga with the intention of renouncing(i.o.) sexual activity and suddenly want to lead an abstemious life betray that they are not only ignorant of the divine origin of this energy, but even of the energy itself.
Westerners who have been miseducated by cultural denial of the growth-facilitating aspects of sexual activity, need to surmount prejudices and recognize sex as an aspect of development toward self-actualization. For sexual activity, accompanied by love, is of all ordinary acts the one most likely to contribute to the adult's progression to higher stages. Many writers on tantracism, (e.g. Blofeld 1970), while stressing other aspects, do not even mention maithuna(sexual union). But while this omission may be a concession to Western sensibilities, it is significant that even the most exalted mystics speak of their
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union with God in an undeniably sexual vocabulary. Consider the following from St. Marguerite Marie, (Leuba 1925:112-3):
One day as the bridegroom was crushing her by the weight of his love and she was remonstrating, He said: Let me do my pleasure; There is a time for everything. Now I want you to be the plaything of my love, and you must live thus without resistance, surrendered to my desires, allowing me to gratify myself at your expense.
Leuba (1925:143-155) devotes a number of pages to a pejorative examination of alleged Freudian interpretation of such mystic love. It is not surprising that the good professor was offended by such language in his day. But in a time of greater sexual enlightenment it is possible to ask if all this is the mere expression of sexual frustration, or is sexual intercourse the clearest simile of complete and pervasive spiritual union that most mortals understand? If this be true, then the sexual aspect of tantracism is prefiguration of undifferentiated union, and its ecstasy is an earnest of mystic rapture.
4.3 CREATIVITY (Jhana -5)
4.31 Introduction
If there is one entrance for Western scientific man into the arcana of developmental progress and self-actualization, that entrance is creativity. For it allows him, while still retaining his respectability as a cognitive thinker, to have intuitive brushes with the numinous element through creative outpourings from the preconscious. And it is heuristic, for it prepares him for the mind-expansion into psychedelic realms which inevitably follows. Creativity, therefore, in addition to importance in its own right for the individual, and its social value in products for society, is also the sine qua non for effective syntaxic relationship with the numinous element in the conscious state. Without its discipline, our relationship with the numinous is only found in the altered state of consciousness of the prototaxic or parataxic modes (with the single exception of art, which is a kind of non-verbal creativity). The great importance of this subject is therefore evident; it has concerned scholars such as Guilford, Osborn, Maslow, Jung, Rogers, to name only a few; it has been the subject of our own investigations (1972, 1974), and it deserves careful attention here.
The last section of the parataxic mode was devoted to non-verbal creativity in art. It is fitting that one of the first procedures of the syntaxic mode should be verbal creativity. In this section without
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retracing theory more fully explicated in the Development of the Creative Individual(Gowan, 1972), it is important to make three points in a rather summary fashion:
(1) Creativity is developmental (Gowan, 1972:53-70; Gowan, 1974:48-95): Creativity itself is an emergent and characteristic outcome of the theory of developmental stages. When the requisite degree of mental health is present, creativity is an inevitable outcome of developmental process. Maslow (Anderson, 1968:84) speaks of creativity as a "universal heritage of every human" and one which "covaries with psychological health." The individual who gains mental health as he goes through the developmental process exhibits increasing creativeness. An individual who experiences strain and anxiety evidences diminished creativity.
(2) Creativity represents an intuitive relationship between the conscious ego and the collective preconscious which not only conduces to mental health, but is very desirable for psychedelic progress (Gowan, 1972:60-67; Gowan, 1974:80-95).
While there will be more detailed exploration of this concept in section 4.39 shortly to follow, it may be helpful to say a few words about it here.
Creativity is the intuitive form of psychedelia. Since creativity is the junior cognitive stage, creative production results from leaks (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane) between the preconscious and the conscious. In psychedelic production, doors between the two swing open, and the conscious mind is awed by suddenly finding itself master in a new and vastly enlarged domain.
It should therefore come as no surprise to us that creative people are often psychedelic, and psychedelic people are often creative. The only difference is that frequently the creative person cannot tell you how it happens and the more advanced individual can. Creative people are like children in the enactive stage where "the learning is in the muscles"; they therefore have often adopted a ritual for going into a relaxed state which will induce creativity. Some methods for accomplishing this are detailed elsewhere (Gowan, 1972:ch. 7).
In any hierarchy of developmental process, creativity has its place
(Maslow, 1954:199-259' ), (Erikson 1963:247-274), (Anderson, 1954:84
88, (Jung, Singer 1972:140). Elsewhere (1972:54) we say:
The amount of creativity, other things being equal, is a barometer of one's mental health. Maslow (Anderson, 1959, p. 88)
elaborates this idea further when he says: "The creativity of my subjects seemed to be an epiphenomenon of their greater wholeness and integration, which is what self-actualized implies." It is as (page 279) natural to express creativity under conditions of high mental health as it is for a heated black object to radiate electromagnetic waves. At first there is no emanation, then with increasing temperature there is first heat, then light, and finally ultraviolet rays. Here the increase of temperature corresponds to expanded mental health, and the appearance of electromagnetic waves corresponds to creative production.
Singer (1972:137) notes:
There is a process in which all men are engaged and which is a developmental process. It has been called many names; Jung called it the Way of Individuation. Singer (1972:140) analyzes the individuation process thus:
The individuation process, in the Jungian sense, means the conscious realization and integration of all the possibilities immanent in the individual. It is opposed to any kind of conformity with the collective and, as a therapeutic factor in analytical work, it also demands the rejection of those prefabricated psychic matrices - the conventional attitudes - with which most people would like to live. It offers the possibility that everyone can have his own direction, his special purpose, and it can attach a sense of value to the lives of those who suffer from the feeling that they are unable to measure up to collective norms and collective ideals. To those who are not recognized by the collective, who are rejected and even despised, this process offers the potentiality of restoring faith in themselves. It may give them back their human dignity and assure them of their place in the world.
Jung (1964:xi) states:
Man becomes whole when and only when the process of individuation is complete, when the conscious and the unconscious have learned to live at peace and to complement one another.
(3) Verbal creativity, as distinct from non-verbal creativity, is a most important component in this process. The chief creative virtue of the verbal aspect is that it gives to man (even with the imperfections of language) a kind of calculus for the commencement of the expressing of his relationship to the numinous element syntaxically. This ability of expression, allows for intellectual negotiability of constructs, and therefore, for consensual validation of percepts. If we can test out our thoughts and feelings with others, we gain first in mental health,
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and then in the cognitive ability to categorize, and to discriminate between symbol and object. As Bruner (1966:6) sagely observes of language:
(it) ends up by being not only the medium for exchange but the instrument that the learner can then use himself in bringing about order into the environment.
The capstone of this process is the verbal analogy, a literary proportion which bridges the gulf between two pairs of incommensurables by showing that they have the same ratio.11 This is the start of verbal creativity. The greatest thing (said Aristotle, Poetics:xxiii) "is to be a master of metaphor, since metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarities of the dissimilar." And J.W. N. Sullivan in his biography of Beethoven carried the idea even further: "A great work of art is a new and higher organization of experience."
Lama Govinda (1960:17) points out that since the syntaxic mode embraces the lower modes as well that
... the essential nature of words is neither exhausted by their present meaning nor is their importance confined to their usefulness as transmitters of thought - they express at the same time qualities which are not translatable into concepts. . . .
He concludes that it is precisely this parataxic quality (of the undefined image) in poetry which stirs us so deeply, and concludes:
If art can be called the formal expression of reality, then the creation of language may be called the greatest achievement of art.
But there are further virtues of verbal creativity, if by verbal we adjoin the entire alpha-numeric symbol system. The development of the "if-then" hypothesis, and the Aristotelian syllogism allow for the cognitive exploration of nature in an order which is amenable to measurement and validation. Thus is the scientific method born with its constant swing between intuition and validation, between hypothesis and measurement. This proving ground for creativity in the verbal mode is a necessary condition for any kind of rigorous investigation such as this book embarks on, for otherwise it would become a mere recounting of superstition, or a fearful, halting exploration in a dark cavern without a light.
Considering the individual differences among one's fellows with regard to most aspects of physique or personality, one is immediately struck with the fact that (a) the variance is real and (page 281) (b) its magnitude is ordinarily measured in percentages. Henry may be 20 percent taller than Edward, 30 percent heavier than Jack, and 25 percent brighter than Clyde; but he is unlikely to be twice as tall, as heavy, or as bright as anyone else.
Surprisingly enough this situation does not hold in regard to creativity. On any kind of creative scale used (and creative production of adults is as reliable as any), some individuals are found whose creative production exceeds that of their fellows, not by percentages, or even simple magnitudes; but it is more likely ten, fifty, or a hundred times as great. Obviously these fortunately creative persons are not that much different. Something has happened to turn them on. Creativity is a "threshold" variable. The nature of what that "something" is - the analysis of that threshold - is the task of this chapter.
Of all the powers of man, that of creativity seems unique. The generally accepted custom among the ancients was to ascribe divine origin, inspiration, or direction to any great creative work so that the poet became the prophet. Even the aspects of initiation and selection, which are universally found in creative function, appear somewhat mysterious, and many of our greater artists and scientists seem to receive inspiration rather than to develop it.
To create, mind must withdraw upon itself for a time to focus its forces and then project an image of itself onto an external medium. Psychologically this introspection and focusing takes the form of heightened awareness of the peripheral asymmetries of a situation and a subtle settling into consciousness of concepts at the boundaries of rationality or in the preconscious. This is the incubation period in the famous Wallas explication of the four components of creative process: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. It is understandable then that the hour of creation is a "tender time" when man wishes to draw apart from his fellows, whether up the mountain, into the desert, or away to his closet, but always into a solitary silence. Creative withdrawal and return, as Toynbee has pointed out, is a characteristic of creative acts of groups as well as of individuals.
Because creativity is a word which has recently been taken over by psychology from religion, it is almost impossible to discover it in a dictionary more than a decade old. It is still a new concept, recently attributed to the personality of man, and still to some fraught with mystical connotations. For this reason, care should be taken in defining it and in distinguishing it from other mental functions, as well as to note its possible varieties.
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Hallman (1963, pp, 18-19) gave a comprehensive definition:
... the creative act can be analyzed into five major components: (1) it is a whole act, a unitary instance of behavior;
(2) it terminates in the production of objects or of forms of living which are distinctive;
(3) it evolves out of certain mental processes;
(4) it co-varies with specific personality transformations; and
(5) it occurs within a particular kind of environment. A demonstration of the necessary features of each of these factors can employ both descriptive and logical procedures; it can refer to the relevance of empirical evidence, and can infer what grounds are logically necessary in order to explain certain facts.12 Following this introduction (1), we enumerate the powers and virtues of verbal creativity (2), then discuss five theories about creativity, as cognitive, rational and semantic (3), as personal and environmental (4), as psychological openness (5), as mediated by the preconscious (6), as evidence of mental health and self-actualization (7). Two final sections concern creative organization, especially general systems theory, and the conclusion.
4.32 The Importance of Symbolization in Verbal Creativity
As we have seen in the previous chapter, non-verbal creativity comes to its highest outlet in art, in the parataxic mode. But there is a further explication of creativity in the syntaxic mode, namely verbal creativity, which is less intuitive and more cognitive in that the connotation and signification becomes categorical. Or to put it another way, the symbol, which was an image in the parataxic mode, now becomes a component of language in the syntaxic, so that what was formerly ill-defined and susceptible of several meanings, now becomes clear and definite, with only one meaning.
This clarification of the image, as a zoom lens clarifies an object in an optical field, is part of the process of differentiation. It differentiates first between symbol and object referent, between a map of and the experience of reality. This clarification helps the cause of truth, for it allows us to specify with far more precision the exact properties and characteristics of nature. It reaches its zenith in the language of mathematics, which is the most precise tool of all.
While the symbol separates man from reality, it is a necessary aspect of knowing reality with the conscious mind. For symbolization of reality seems to be a necessary stage of development in the mind, and the increasing order which mathematics and science find in the universe appear to be examples of this congruence between the human mind and the constitution of the universe. Some mathematical illustrations would include:
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epii + 1 = 0, e = mc2, and lg lg 10 (approx.=) sq. rt. 3
Ernst Cassirer, in An Essay on Man (Hayakawa 1953:131), says:13
. . . man lives in a symbolic universe. . . . No longer can man confront reality immediately; he cannot see it, as it were face-to-face.... He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms ... that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of this artificial medium.
According to Hayakawa "human beings live in a 'semantic environment,' which is the creation of their symbol system." Edward Sapir went so far as to claim (Pearce 1969:4)
. . . the real world is to a large extent built up on the language habits of the group.
To say that a symbol belongs to a system of representation is to say that it is "governed by certain rules of signification" (Nagendra 1972:136)
Of all the known systems of representation, language has the most clear-cut and definite rules of signification . . .
The mathematical language is the most definite and clear-cut of all languages (Nagendra 1972:136) notes:
The mathematical language is only a refined version of verbal symbolism.
The symbol is, as Susanne Langer says, the basic instrument of thought. Thought is a shaping force in reality. It has been noted that our minds screen out far more than we accept; we would live in a chaotic world if this was not so. Of "symbolization---as a universal process" Mukerjee sees it as "the generic creative process of Communication that makes man's life an endless quest." He says (Mukerjee 1959:19):
The study of symbol and the symbolic process provides not only the central frame of reference for the functional analysis of society, but also a new starting point of Philosophy, freed from the Cartesian dualism of matter and spirit, inner and outer world.. . The symbol, both psychologically and epistemologically considered is not merely a mental construct but also a dynamic synthesis of self and its universe. Symbol, then, as Mukerjee concludes, "not only gives us a (page 284) representation of the process ... it enables us to share in or to live in retrospect the experience of the process. It is this ability to be the process and the result of the process which has caused great confusion in trying to analyze ritual's nature. Being the process and the source of the process has also been the source of its power."
And so we have seen the symbol is a "bridging process," bridging the gap between outer existence (the world) and inner meaning. He who understands symbol participates in this bridging process and as Eliade states (Eliade 1959:103):
not only "opens out" to the objective world, but at the same time succeeds in emerging from his particular situation and in attaining a comprehension of the universal. This is explained by the fact that symbols have a way of causing immediate reality, as well as particular situations, to "burst."
Symbols also possess three enormous consequences, according to Bertalanffy (Kepes 1966:275):
"1) They replace biology with history;
2) They replace trial and error by reasoning, and
3) They make purposiveness possible."
Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir, Susanne Langer, and Ernst Cassirer believe that thought and language are not independent processes. The traditional idea that thought comes first to be followed later by a linguistic formulation of that thought is no longer a prevalent one. The process of transforming all direct experience into language, that supreme mode of symbolic expression, (Lee 1949:7), to quote Susanne Langer in her essay "The Phenomenon of Language"
. . . has so completely taken possession of the human mind that it is not only a special talent but a dominant, organic need.
Langer sees in this all-important craving for expression the source of his powers and his weaknesses (Lee 1949:8).
The special power of man's mind rests on the evolution of this special activity ...... his primitive mental function is not judging reality, but dreaming his desires. ... man has a constant and crying need of expression. What he cannot express, he cannot conceive; what he cannot conceive is chaos and fills him with terror.
To Susanne Langer this process of symbolic transformation which all our experiences undergo (Lee 1949:8): (page 285)
... is nothing more nor less than the process of conception, which underlies the human faculties of abstraction and imagination....
Language is the highest and most amazing achievement of the symbolistic human mind. The power it bestows is almost inestimable.
Both Cassirer and Langer conclude that names or naming are the essence of language. Cassirer in Language and A View of the World (Lee 1949:259) says:
Without the help of the name every new advance made in the process of objectification would always run the risk of being lost again in the next moment.
Language is necessary and must be predictable if we are to function comfortably in this world.
According to Pearce (1969:143):
Speech serves no adaptive purpose ... yet speech was developed by life, and its purpose can be understood from its real function, a function long championed by Langer.... It was a part of the development of a system of logical choice, of value judgment, and of projected symbol-making, through which new possibilities for reality could be consciously directed.
The creation of language, the facility whereby we communicate with our world and those in it, is according to Pearce, a case of the "cause of the need" becoming the "cause of the fulfillment of the need." Language is the means by which we become comfortable in our world. It is through language that we name our world, and through naming our world we create the world that we name.
As Fischer 1974:32 reminds us:
Symbols are capable of revealing a modality of the "real" or a condition of the World which is not evident on the plane of immediate experience. Symbols, . . . point beyond themselves and open up levels of reality which otherwise are closed. In this sense symbols have a sacred, religious quality. A man who understands a symbol not only "opens himself" to the objective world, but at the same time succeeds in emerging from his personal situation and reaching a comprehension of the universal.
Before leaving verbal creativity, there is another and very different benefit to be noted. One of the difficulties that many persons have with efforts to become creative is that such efforts seem to destroy
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their organizational posture. The effort to relax enough to be non-verbally creative seems to interfere with the time-competence, and other responsible aspects of being "organized." The notorious difficulties that artists have of dealing with mundane ego-tasks is well known. But as creativity becomes less affective and more cognitive, less parataxic and more syntaxic, less non-verbal and more verbal, it appears gradually to come free of this difficulty, so that in the higher reaches of verbal creativity (such as general semantics, general systems theory, or higher mathematics) one may simultaneously find high structure and high creativity.
4.33 Creativity as Cognitive, Rational, and Semantic14
Attention may now be given to an extremely important group of researchers who have regarded creativity in the main as little else than problem solving. It is a form of rational thought which connects things, which combines parts into new wholes and which (like Sherlock Holmes) performs seeming miracles through observation, insight, and meaningful analysis of semantic elements.
Hallman (1963) calls this condition connectedness and says that it imposes on man
. . . the need to create by bringing already existing elements into a distinctive relation to each other. The essence of human creativeness is relational, and an analysis of its nature must refer to the connectedness of whatever elements enter into the creative relationship. The analysis must demonstrate that though man does not create the components, he can nevertheless produce new connections among them. It must prove that these connections are genuinely original and not simply mechanical. Logically, this means that connectedness comprises relationships which are neither symmetrical nor transitive; that is, the newly created connections as wholes are not equivalent to the parts being connected. Neither side of the equation validly implies the other, for the relationship is neither inferential nor causal; rather, it is metaphoric and transformational.
Hallman (1963) calls the roll of some of the writers who have called attention to this aspect of creative performance as follows: Bruner (1962) who states that creativity grows out of combinational activity; Taylor (1964) who points to new organizational patterns; Murray (Anderson, 1959, p. 96 ff.) who finds a compositional process; Ghiselin (1952) who abstracts a new constellation of meanings. Creativity has also been considered as resulting from particular types of logical thought. This was indeed the view of Osborn (1953) in Applied Imagination, and the problem-solving methods he espoused.
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These go back to Dewey (1910), Rossman (1931), and Wallas (1926) and are found in the practice of the Buffalo Creative Problem-Solving Workshop15 which Osborn founded and which is carried on by his protege, Parnes (Gowan, Demos and Torrance, 1967, pp. 32f43). Edwards (1968) has supplied us with a survey of creative problem-solving courses.
While factor analysts did not discover creativity in the factors of intellect until Guilford's "Structure of Intellect," others were making earlier appraisals of creative process which separated it from intelligence. Some of these efforts tended to equate creativity with problem solving.
Dewey (1910) offered an initial attempt at a problem-solving model for creativity by suggesting the following steps:
(1) awareness that a problem exists;
(2) analysis of the problem;
(3) an understanding of the nature of the problem;
(4) suggestions for possible solutions; and
(5) testing the alternative solutions and accepting or rejecting them.
Wallas (1926) suggested a somewhat similar model, but with more attempt to account for preconscious aspects:
(1) preparation (assembling the information, a long rational process);
(2) incubation (temporary relaxation, play, or turning the matter over to the preconscious);
(3) inspiration (a brief moment of insight); and
(4) evaluation (elaboration and testing of the completed process or product).
Rossman (1931) noted that an inventor goes through a similar process and decided on seven steps:
(1) observed needs;
(2) formulation of problem;
(3) available information collected;
(4) solution formulated;
(5) solutions examined critically;
(6) new ideas formulated; and
(7) new ideas tested.
4.34 Creativity as Personal and Environmental16
The trait and environment theories about creativity have long received considerable attention. There are three main areas of interest:
a. Creativity as a personality correlate, especially of originality, energy, humor, and high self-concept;
b. Creativity as a result of environment, especially parental rearing practice;
c. Creativity as a concomitant of age and stage and other auxiliary variables.
Creativity as a personality correlate has received the main attention. Hallman (1963), in his definitive review, says:
For example, a large body of evidence has accumulated in connection with the effort to identify the particular personality
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traits which make for creativity. The assumption is that the creative process can be fully accounted for by providing an exhaustive list of such traits.... Fromm speaks of four traits: capacity to be puzzled, ability to concentrate, capacity to accept conflict, and willingness to be reborn every day (1959). Rogers has a similar list: openness to experience, internal locus of evaluation, and ability to toy with elements (1959). Maslow has perhaps the most extensive list (1962); the creative personality, he says, is spontaneous, expressive, effortless, innocent, unfrightened by the unknown or ambiguous, able to accept tentativeness and uncertainty, able to tolerate bipolarity, able to integrate opposites. The creative person is the healthy, self-actualizing person Maslow believes. Others who have identified creative traits are Barron (1963), Meier (1939), Whiting (1958), Angyal (1956), Mooney (1956), Lowenfeld (1958), and Hilgard (1959).
Weisberg and Springer (Mooney and Razik, 1967) chose 50 of the most creative and gifted children out of 4000 in the Cincinnati schools and gave them tests and interviews. The five highest judgment categories (all significant at the 5 percent level) following the interview were (1) strength of self-image, (2) ease of early recall, (3) humor, (4) availability of oedipal anxiety and (5) uneven ego development.
Welsh (1967) used an adjective check list on Governor's School students which indicated that high creative adolescents are independent, nonconforming individuals who have change and variety in environment and also have active heterosexual interests.
Whelan (1965) used a theoretical key of seven scales with the following correlations with creativity:
a. energy (r = .67): few illnesses, avid reader, early physical development, good grades, active in organizations
b. autonomy (r = .60): values privacy, independent, early to leave home
C. confidence (r = .68)
d. openness to new experience (r = .37)
e. preference for complexity (r = .13)
f. lack of close emotional ties (r = .30)
g. permissive value structure (r = .67).
Dellas and Gaier (1970) reviewed creativity research on five variables: (1) intellectual factors, (2) intelligence, (3) personality, (4) potential creativity and (5) motivational characteristics. Creative persons appear more distinguished by interests, attitudes, and drives rather than high intelligence. Creativity seems to be a synergic effect involving cognitive style, openness, and other personality variables.
Neither permissiveness, overindulgence, nor a great deal of love
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in the home appears to stimulate creative performance as had, in some quarters, been alleged; but a good deal of parental interaction with children, plus authoritative (not authoritarian) behavior on the part of the parents, appears helpful. The mixed results make it appear that parental rearing practices and other environmental influences are not central in producing creative persons, at least not so much so as individual personality dynamics. Some research results follow.
There have been a number of doctoral dissertations focusing on relationships between home environment and personality factors on the one hand and creativity on the other. Abdel-Salan (1963) found the male adolescent creative, self-sufficient, alternately lax and exacting and a trusting, adaptable, surgent, easy-going cyclotheme. Ellinger (1964) obtained a correlation of .6 between creativity and home environment for 450 fourth graders. Parents of creative children were more involved in activities, read more to children, went more often out to the library and used less physical punishment. Orinstein (1961), using the PARI, found maternal restrictiveness correlated .4 with low vocabulary, but neither permissiveness nor loving attitude correlated with creativity. Pankove (1966) found a positive relationship between creativity and risk-taking boys.
Arasteh (1968) concluded, after a careful survey of creativity in young children, that a loving, authoritative but somewhat permissive family structure was more productive of creative children than an autocratic or inflexible one.
Torrance (1969), in reporting intercultural research in which the author also participated (Gowan and Torrance, 1963), found strong relationships between cultural environment and creative index.
Research in which the author participated (Gowan and Torrance, 1965; Torrance, Gowan, Wu, and Aliotti, 1970) indicates that in cross cultural studies of creative performance in children, strain is put upon the child with resultant reduction in creativity by bilingualism at home or school.
Datta and Parloff (1967) attempted to determine the kind of family in which the creative individual is likely to develop. Previous studies indicated that the relevant dimension is autonomy control. Both creative scientists and their less creative controls described parents as moderately affectionate, nonrejecting and encouraging. The creatives were more likely to perceive parents as providing a "no rules" situation in which their integrity, autonomy, and responsibility were taken for granted.
A third area, that of age and stage aspects of creativity, was also researched. The effects of age on creativity have been studied in superior adults by Botwinick (1967) and by Lehman (Botwinick, 1967; Lehman, 1953, 1960). Their findings generally agree that creativity
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is more often found in younger individuals, and that young men in their twenties are especially apt to be highly innovative in science. A somewhat later apex is found for the behavioral sciences, but the peak of creative performance seems passed by the age of forty. Similar results had been reported earlier by Bjorkstem (1946).
Hallman (1963) in his definitive review says:
Another body of data has been collected to prove that creativity can be fully explained as a series of chronological stages, each stage of which makes its unique contribution to the total process. Wallas (1926) provides the classical statement of this position, and he has been followed by Patrick (1937) and Spender (1946) in connections with creativeness in poetry; Hadamard (1954) and Poincare (1913) in mathematics; Arnold (1959), Patrick and Montmasson (1931) in science. Others who define creativity in terms of serial stages are Chiselin (1952), Vinacke (1952), and Hutchinson (1949).
In conclusion to creativity as personal and environmental, we should briefly notice two research approaches: measurement and biographical indices.
Regarding measurement, Rossman and Horn (1973) in an extensive factor analysis concluded that it is useful to regard creativity and intelligence as the outgrowth of distinct though overlapping influences, with creativity having definite personality aspects. Cropley (1972) in a five-year longitudinal study found predictive validity for the Torrance Creativity tests, a result which has recently been established by Torrance himself. Philipp (1967) in a doctoral study determined that creativity is a specific and not generalized factor.
Regarding biographical approaches, Schaefer (1970), Anastasi and Schaefer, (1969) developed a 165-item biographical inventory on high school students with separate keys for boys and girls. The Biographical Inventory correlated with judged creativity at r's between .35 and .55. Taylor at the Institute for Behavioral Research in Creativity at Salt Lake City has developed the Alpha Biographical Inventory for Creativity which has had considerable vogue. Malone (1974) in doctoral research, using a new, powerful computer program CHAROSEL, developed a similar biographical method for disadvantaged gifted children.40
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4.35 Creativity as Psychological Openness
4.351 General
Ever since the development of the construct of creativity in the 1950's, and despite the views of its early exponents, such as Guilford
and Osborn, there has been a steady movement away from the concept of creativity as essentially problem-solving in favor of the hypothesis that creativity represents some kind of psychological openness. A growing and prestigious group of researchers, Including Jung (Arieti 1967), Maslow (1954), and Rogers (1959), to name only three, associate creative functioning with openness to interior and exterior experience brought on by good mental health, an anti-authoritarian style of living, and general flexibility. Maslow's concepts of spontaneity, autonomy, democratic (anti-authoritarian) character structure and creativity found in self-actualizing people is a good example. Another is Roger's (1959) "openness to experience," "an internal locus of evaluation," and "the ability to toy with concepts." Schactel (1959) speaks of the quality of the encounter which develops into creative performance as primarily one of openness. Schulman (1966) also found openness of perception necessary for creative functioning.
Hallman (1963), in his thorough review, also names openness and says:
It designates those characteristics of the environment, both the inner and the outer, the personal and the social, which facilitates the creative person's moving from the actual state of affairs which he is in at a given time, toward solutions which are only possible and as yet undetermined. These conditions, or traits, include sensitivity, tolerance of ambiguity, self-acceptance, and spontaneity. Since these are passively rather than actively engaged in the creative process, this criterion may be explained logically within the category of possibility. But again, the psychological meaning of this category may best be expressed under the concept of deferment, as distinguished, for example, from closure; of postponement as distinguished from predetermined solutions.
Openness can be described in twelve aspects, all mentioned by Maslow (1954), as characteristic of his group of self-actualized people. The first four aspects are also noted by Hallman.
(1) Problem sensitivity refers to the ability to sense things as they might be reassembled, to a discrepancy, an aperture or a hiatus. It involves a particular kind of openness which divines that things are not quite what they seem. Hallman cites Angyal (1956), Fromm (1959), Guilford (1967), Greenacre (1957), Hilgard (1959), Lowenfeld (1958), Mooney (1956), and Stein (1953) as witnesses for the importance of problem sensitivity in creative performance.
(2) Ability to tolerate ambiguity is another aspect widely noted. Hallman (1963) characterizes it as "the ability to accept conflict and
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tension resulting from polarity (Fromm, 1959), to tolerate inconsistencies and contradictions (Maslow, 1963), to accept the unknown, and be comfortable with the ambiguous, approximate, and uncertain." He names Hart (1950), Wilson (1954), and Zilboorg (1959) as holding similar views. The ability to tolerate ambiguity appears also related with two other aspects. One is the ability to toy with ideas, rather playfully rearranging them into different forms. The other is preference for complexity, found by Barron (1963) in his study of artists.
(3) Internalized locus of evaluation is a Rogerian phrase for what Hallman calls a sense of destiny and personal worth which internalizes the value system so that it is not dependent upon cultural mores. This personal autonomy, also named by Maslow (1954) as characteristic of self-actualized people is really the opposite of authoritarian tendencies. The development of autonomy in young adults has been found to be negatively correlated with authoritarianism. Benton (1967), in a doctoral thesis, found openness (opposite of authoritarianism) to be predictive of creativity among students. An interesting sidelight of this aspect is the resultant philosophical, unhostile sense of humor, so characteristic of creative people, and found by Maslow as one of the qualities of his self-actualized group.
(4) Spontaneity is a quality used by both Hallman and Maslow to describe openness and creativity. It involves more isomorphic and comfortable relations with reality, so that one experiences life directly and "openly," not as if through a darkened glass. There is an appreciation and wonderment toward life, a childlike awe and admiration of that which is mysterious about the universe, blending into a mystic or oceanic feeling. All of these are qualities named by Maslow about his self-actualized people. "Scientific genius," said Poincare, "is the capacity to be surprised."
Finally, while still on the mental health aspect of creativity, the considerable testimony should be noted for creativity as at least a two-stage process as one ascends the mental health scale.
Hallman (1963), in his definitive review, has this to say:
A third cluster of evidence surrounds the definition that creative activity involves an interchange of energy among vertical layers of psychological systems. Creativeness consists in a shift of psychic levels. Most writers identify two psychological levels and refer to them variously as the primary- secondary processes, the autistic and reality adjusted, unconscious mechanisms and conscious deliberation, free and bound energies, gestalt-free and articulating tendencies. These writers include Freud, Ehrenzweig (1953), and Schneider (1950). Maslow (1959) adds to these two levels a third one called integration. (page 293) Another who believes in two levels of creativity is Taft (1970), who states:
There are two styles of creativity; one a measured, problem-solving approach, and the other an emotional and comparatively uncontrolled free expression.17
Taft believes that this dichotomy stems from the distinction made between primary and secondary processes by Freud. The primary process creativity (or "hot" creativity) occurs in the preconscious, and the secondary process (or "cold" creativity) requires more controls and less fantasy expression, such as scientific investigation, for example.
And Ghiselin (Taylor and Barron, 1963:42) tells us that:
It is reasonable to say that there are two levels of creativity, one higher and one lower, one primary and one secondary, one major and one minor. Creative action of the lower, secondary sort gives further development to an established body of meaning through initiating some advance in its use. . . Creative action of the higher, primary sort alters the universe of meaning itself, by introducing into it some new element of meaning or some new order of significance, or, more commonly, both.
By this time, the reader may well ask "What is it that the mind is open to in this second level of creative insight?" This question deserves a careful answer. In an effort to document that answer, we shall consider four examples of openness: (a) openness under hypnosis, (b) openness under drugs, (c) openness to ESP, and (d) openness to dreams, in the remainder of this section. In the next, we shall then be able to formulate a theory about the preconscious mechanism by which creativity is produced.
If you met a group of new people at one party and several days later on a completely different occasion, you again ran into the same group, you would suspect some connection between the two events, some common organizer. It is thus rather interesting that in a study of creative openness we have again run into some prototaxic and parataxic procedures which we studied in earlier chapters.
4.352 Openness Facilitated by Hypnosis
It seems evident from the research that under some conditions creativity is facilitated by hypnosis. Krippner (1972) documented some examples of this kind, including the McCord and Sherrill (1961) report of a mathematics professor whose speed in solving difficult problems was speeded up about six times. P. Bowers (1967) found that hypnosis improved performance on the remote consequences test at p = .001;
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the effect appearing to be due to reduced defensiveness. K. Bowers (1968) got no significant results in a creativity task between groups of hypnotized and hypnotically simulating groups. In a more complicated 2 X 3 research design K. Bowers and van der Meulen (1970) found hypnotically susceptible significantly more creative than hypnotically unsusceptible subjects; women also tended to be more creative under hypnosis than men. In a further study, K. Bowers (1970) found relationships between creativity, hypnotic susceptibility, and trancelike experiences for women, but not for men. He suggested that imagination in women is more stimulus incited, whereas in men it is more impulse incited.
The definitive review of research in this area is that of Bowers and Bowers (Fromm and Shor, 1972:235-290). In addition to having done a good bit of it themselves, the Bowers' deny the behavioristic bias in making hypersuggestibility the defining feature of hypnosis, and argue that trance and subjective experience of the individual under hypnosis has a real place in research on the subject. Calling the "generalized reality orientation" the GRO (or the OSC in our terms), they point out that there are many conditions besides hypnosis when the GRO fades away, and some of them have to do with fantasy and the relaxed reverie which precedes the insight stage of creative performance.
Bowers and Bowers (Fromm and Shor, 1972(283) conclude after a review of their research and others that unrealistic and fantasy experiences:
a. are concomitants of various ASC's including hypnosis,
b. occur more in subjects high in hypnotic susceptibility,
c. may occasionally occur in a creative act, but are
d. often experienced by creative subjects in more flexible shifting from one level of functioning to another.
They believe that creativity involves regression to "passively experienced fantasy and then progression to integration of fantasy with reality." They cite both Krippner (1968) and Silverman (1968) as noting similarities between ASC's and the inspirational stage of creativity. They conclude: "A relationship between hypnosis and creativity does seem probable, but the precise nature of this link is far from clear."
Bowers and Bowers (lbid:271) suggest that there is an "oscillating relationship between focused attention and fantasy which is an important condition of the adaptive regression which underlies creativity." They cite the literature on eye movements which suggests (lbid:274) that "eye movement is usually reduced under conditions of uncritical, undirected thinking characteristic of hypnosis and
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creativity." Ability to "tolerate unusual experiences" upon loss of the GRO correlates "about as high with hypnotic susceptibility as any other measure" (lbid:277). This is also a characteristic of fantasy. The creative person seems to have become able to retrieve through the oscillating procedure, those aspects of fantasy which help him to creative performance. In other words, both hypnosis and creativity have a common base in easy slippage from the GRO into fantasy. But as Bowers and Bowers (Ibid:291) conclude: whereas "conventional reality is relatively unimportant for the hypnotized person," it is vital to the creative individual for "it is the stuff that creative imagination transforms."
McHenry and Shouksmith (1970) describe an experiment in which 147 ten year olds were tested for their creative ability. Results showed that when placed in a situation exposed to the suggestion of peers, the highly creative children were very open to suggestion, but subjects high on visual imagination were not. The researchers then concluded that creative children are more suggestible.
4.353 Openness Facilitated by Drugs18
There have been many highly creative persons who have used consciousness-altering drugs (e.g., opium, alcohol, LSD, hashish), though one can only - at this time - speculate as to whether or not any of these drugs increased their creativity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poet and philosopher, habitually used a preparation of opium. Charles Baudelaire, a nineteenth century writer, lavishly described his sensations after eating hashish. William James (1902), the famous psychologist and philosopher, tried using nitrous oxide - commonly known as laughing gas - to "stimulate the mystical consciousness." Aldous Huxley, the novelist and essayist, took mescaline and LSD on frequent occasions. Even Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, ingested cocaine for several years and recommended it highly.
"In recent years, psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs have often been used for creative purposes. In 1965, the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond and the architect Kyo Izumi announced that they had designed a new mental hospital with the aid of psychedelic drugs. Izumi (1968) took LSD when he visited traditionally designed mental hospitals to determine their effects upon persons in altered states of consciousness. In this condition, the long corridors and pale colors appeared bizarre and frightening to him; the corridor "seemed infinite, and it seemed as if I would never get to the end of it." He and Osmond assumed that the hospital would look similarly unpleasant to the mental patients. As a result of Izumi's experiences, he and Osmond designed a decentralized series of unimposing buildings with pleasant colors and no corridors.
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"Barron (1963)administered psilocybin to several highly creative persons and recorded their impressions. For example, one of Barron's subjects, a composer, writes, "Every corner is alive in a silent intimacy." Barron concluded, "What psilocybin does is to ... dissolve many definitions and ... melt many boundaries, permit greater intensities or more extreme values of experience to occur in many dimensions." However, some of the artists in Barron's study were wildly enthusiastic about their seemingly increased sensitivity during drug experience, but later when the effects of the drug wore off, they found that the artistic work they produced had little artistic merit. For instance, a painter recalled, "I have seldom known such absolute identification with what I was doing - nor such a lack of concern with it afterwards." It appears that an artist is not necessarily able to evaluate his psychedelically-inspired work while he is under the influence of the drug.
4.354 The Role of Extrasensory Perception in Creativity19
Aside from the possibility that extrasensory perception (ESP) may have played a part in some of the creative dreams just described, there have in general been many unusual and puzzling creative achievements in which ESP may have played a role.
When Igor Sikorsky was ten years of age, he dreamed of coursing the skies in the softly lit, walnut-paneled cabin of an enormous flying machine. Sikorsky later became an eminent aircraft designer and inventor of the helicopter. Three decades after the dream, he went aboard one of his own four- engine clippers to inspect a job of interior decorating done by Pan American Airways. With a start, he recognized the cabin as identical to the one in his boyhood dream.
Max Planck, the physicist, first spoke of his "constant" when he was twenty-three years of age; however, he did not understand its implications for wave theory until much later. Indeed, he had to convince himself of its correctness; it varied so greatly from the logic of his time that he could not comprehend it when the idea first came to him.
Perhaps one of the most interesting cases of this kind is that of Michael Faraday (cited by Koestler, 1963), one of the greatest physicists of all time. Faraday was a visionary even in a literal sense. He "saw" the stresses surrounding magnets and electric currents as "curves of force in space," which he called "lines of forces." He visualized the universe as patterned by narrow curved tubes through which all forms of "ray-vibrations" or energy-radiations are propagated. This vision of curved tubes which "rose up before him like things" led him to the ideas of the dynamo and the electric motor. It also made him discard the concept of the ether and to postulate that light is electromagnetic radiation. Did Faraday enter these new realities
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through his imagination, or was he also assisted by ESP?
The case of Jonathan Swift (cited by Haefele, 1962), the writer of Gulliver's Travels and other novels, combines artistic and scientific creativity. When Gulliver reaches Laputa, the astronomers state that the planet Mars has two moons quite close to the planet. One completed its orbit every ten hours, the other every 21.5 hours. It took astronomers in ordinary reality 150 years to discover that Mars did, indeed, have two moons which completed their orbits around the planet every eight and every 30 hours.
A final instance of the possible association between ESP and creativity concerns Futility,a popular novel written by Morgan Robertson in 1898. It described the wreck of a giant ship called the Titan. This ship was considered "unsinkable" by the characters in the novel; it displaced 70,000 tons, was 800 feet long, had 24 lifeboats, and carried 3,000 passengers. Its engines were equipped with three propellers. One night in April, while proceeding at 25 knots, the Titan encountered an iceberg in the fog and sank with great loss of life.
On April 15, 1912, the Titanic was wrecked in a disaster which echoed the events portrayed in the novel 14 years previously. The Titanic displaced 66,000 tons and was 828 feet long, It had three propellers and was proceeding at 23 knots on its maiden voyage, carrying nearly 3,000 passengers. There was great loss of life because the Titanic was equipped with only 20 lifeboats.
Thus, the role played by ESP in creativity demands further study. Anderson (1962) is convinced that the association exists because both ESP and creativity have their roots in deep, unconscious levels of the psyche. She concludes that creativity "by a process of purely conscious calculation seems never to occur. Scrutiny of the conscious scene for the creative end never reveals it; it is never there."
Dreistadt (1972) attempted to relate the prophetic nature of genius with precognition, theorizing that there was either telepathy or clairvoyance in the nature of some of their discoveries. Pang and Fort (1967) in a small study got some evidence of the relation between creativity and ESP.
Honorton (1967) in exploring the relationship between creativity and ESP, found a highly significant difference on precognitive runs between the high creativity subjects and the low ones.
4.355 Dreams and Creativity20
There is considerable testimony on the fact that creativity is closely related to dreams, and some of it is spectacular. Domino (1970) has found more primary process material and more symbolism in the dreams of creative high school males than in controls. Krippner and Hughes (1971) concluded that "dreaming and creative process are related."
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There are many people who can testify to the usefulness of dreams in the creative production of daily life. Kilton Stewart (Tart, 1969:15968) tells how the Senoi, a Malayan tribe, use dreams to promote mental health, and gain control over the preconscious. Following Stewart's example, Alden Flagg (personal communication) of New York Society of General Semantics, programs his sleep so that he will dream solutions to daily problems. Eileen Garrett (1968:135) tells of much the same thing: "I give my consciousness the task of finding the answer while I sleep, and in the morning at the threshold of awakening, I find the information I sought." Many creative people have learned this trick of using dreams.
But the best and most complete summary of the use of dreams for discoveries and inventions by scientists is by Krippner (1972): "Scientists, philosophers, and inventors also have creative dreams and use the content of these dreams either literally (directly) or analogically (symbolically) in their creative work." (It will be recalled that artists, musicians, and writers generally used the content in a literal manner.)
Herman V. Hilprecht (cited by Woods, 1947:525-530) attempted to decipher two small fragments of agate which were believed to belong to the finger rings of a Babylonian, and had cuneiform writing on them of the Cassite period in Babylonian history. After midnight he was weary and exhausted, went to sleep, and dreamed the following:
A tall thin priest of old pre-Christian Nippur, about forty years of age and clad in a simple abba, led me to the treasure chamber of the temple ... He addressed me as follows: "The two fragments which you have published separately on pages 22 and 26, belong together, are not finger rings and their history is as follows: King Kurigalzu (Ca. 1300 B.C.) once sent to the temple of Bel ... an inscribed votive cylinder of agate. Then we priests suddenly received the command to make for the statue of the god Ninib a pair of earrings of agate. We were in a great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at hand. In order to execute the command there was nothing for us to do but cut the votive cylinder into three parts, thus making three rings, each of which contained a portion of the original inscription. The first two rings served as earrings for the statue of the god; the two fragments which have given you so much trouble are portions of them. If you will put the two together you will have confirmation of my words. But the third ring you have not found in the course of your excavations and you never will find it." With this the priest disappeared. I woke up . . .
Hilprecht later verified this interpretation by actually putting the
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fragments together at the Imperial Museum of Constantinople, thereby showing that they had once belonged to one and the same votive cylinder.
In his creative drearn Hilprecht combined identically shaped "rings" (association by similarity) and thereby reconstructed the votive cylinder. He also combined other bits of information that agreed with this reconstruction. All this represents a process of consolidation. Hilprecht's dream thus integrated a great deal of material, but by synthesizing the material correctly the dream also gave him a picture of a non-ordinary reality - a past reality. It is conceivable, too, that Hilprecht's close contact with the "rings" helped give him imagery of the past events he saw in his dream in the same manner as the touch of an object purportedly gives a psychic paragnost accurate imagery of the past history of the object.
The naturalist Louis Agassiz (cited by Krippner and Hughes, 1970),attempted to transfer the image of a fossilized fish from a stone but found the image too blurred. He gave up the project only to dream a few nights later of an entire fossilized fish. He hurried to the laboratory the next morning, but the image was as obscure as before. The dream returned the next night. When he examined the slab the next morning, the vague image appeared unchanged. Hoping to have the dream a third time, Agassiz put a pencil and paper by his bed. The dream returned and he drew the image. The next morning when he looked at what he had drawn, he was surprised that he had produced so many details in total darkness. He returned to his laboratory and used the drawing as a guide to chisel the slab. When the stone layer fell away, Agassiz found the fossil in excellent condition and identical to the image he had seen in his dream.
Agassiz' creative dream of the fossilized fish may have been induced by having perceived unconsciously a clue in the stone slab which he had ignored while awake. If so, the dream could have emphasized and drawn his attention to stimuli he had perceived subliminally while he was awake. Perhaps Agassiz also perceived the fossil fish clairvoyantly by extrasensory perception (e.g., Krippner, 1963). If this is true, subliminal perception and extrasensory perception helped Agassiz experience non-ordinary reality which quickly turned into ordinary reality once the slab was cut.
The creative dreams of Hilprecht and Agassiz gave the solution to a problem literally or directly. One can cite as well creative dreams of scientists and inventors that gave the solution of a problem analogically or symbolically.
The chemist Friedrich August Kekule (cited by Koestler, 1964:118),had a tendency to make theoretical discoveries in hypnagogic reverie states. Kekule wrote:
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I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gambolling before my eyes. The smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by visions of this kind, could now distinguish larger structures, of manifold conformations; long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together, all twining and twisting in snakelike motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke.
The dream image of a snake holding its tail in its mouth led Kekule by analogy to his discovery that Benzene has a ringlike structure (usually represented by a hexagon) and to his "closed-chain" or "ring" theory which showed the importance of molecular structure in organic chemistry. The imagery granted Kekule a glimpse into a non-ordinary reality of molecular structure. In 1869, D. I. Mendeleev went to bed exhausted after struggling to conceptualize a way to categorize the elements based upon their atomic weights (cited by Kedrov, 1957). He reported, "I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper. Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary." In this manner, Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the Elements was created.
(Noting that hypnagogic and reverie states are frequently associated with theta brain wave rhythms, Green, Green, and Walters (1971) have instigated a biofeedback project to train individuals to enter these states through EEG brain wave training. The association between theta production and creativity will be explored among the subjects who can successfully produce the theta rhythm.)
It can be seen that creative persons in their dreams sometimes appear to experience non-ordinary reality, and at the same time make different types of consolidations. Finding a new reality in a creative dream gives the person a novel slant or direction for consolidating his information, and the consolidation enables him to see the details and structure of the new reality more clearly. In some cases, finding a new reality not only gives the person a new direction for consolidating his information, but even involves finding additional information to be included in the consolidation.
4.36 Creativity and the Preconscious
The theory which explains most precisely the mechanism by which creativity operates is that of the preconscious (Kubie, 1958). Openness in this view is really openness to the collective preconscious, an effect of the numinous element which is shared by all. It can be considered
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as an ever-refilling well wherein all creative men have learned to dip their bucket, or as a great general computer, containing in its data banks all knowledge, and creativity is but the process of operating the terminal console. Or it can be considered as a great collator, chewing up the events and ideas of the day, and rearranging them into other forms and patterns, or like an enlarged fluid container, with a permeable membrane though which (by osmosis) creative ideas are leaked into consciousness. This theory is really the only one which explains the necessity for relaxation after cognitive preparation for the creative ideas to emerge.
Such a view immediately suggests that the preconscious is the source of man's creativity, particularly when it is strengthened, protected and enlarged through regular use and through increasing mental health. The "establishment" of the preconscious is evidence that the individual is not at war with himself, not alienated from experience, not a split personality. He can be creative because almost all his past experiences, in chewed-up and digested form, ready to be reattached to new concepts, are available to his preconscious collator. It has at its disposal a vast assortment of biological impulses, tabooed acts, rejected compromises, affected pains and pleasures, remembered facts, personal feelings, horrifying nightmares and a host of other material, none of which has been suppressed, but all of which can be reused (much like old newspapers) to print a new edition. What is in the new edition depends on how much freedom the editor (preconscious) has from the incursions of the prohibitions of the conscious and super-ego and the pressures of experiences and feelings suppressed by the unconscious. The health, growth, and stability of the preconscious thus becomes of prime importance in investigating the genesis of creativity.
Greenacre (1971) feels that the openness which produces creativity is related to infantile development prior to the Oedipus resolution. She points out the frequency of family fantasies in the highly creative, and mentions special aspects as empathy, sensori-motor capacity for expression, awareness of relationships among stimuli, and greater sensory responsiveness. Greenacre's views on the oedipal and fantasy aspects of creativity have been developed elsewhere by the author (1972:17).
Pointing out that the child lives in a mythical paradisal time, Eliade (1963:77) says in footnote: "This is why the unconscious displays the structure of a private mythology ... some of its contents carry cosmic values.... Modern Man's only real contact with cosmic sacrality is effected by the unconscious, whether in dreams and his imaginative life or in the creations that arise out of the unconscious."
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Recognizing the importance of preconscious inspiration, many creative persons have intuitively derived individual mechanisms for throwing themselves into this mode of knowledge. Gerald Heard says (Weil and Others 1971:9):
To have truly original thought the mind must throw off its critical guard, its filtering censor. It must put itself in a state of depersonalization . . . The best researchers when confronting problems and riddles which have defied all solution by ordinary methods, did employ their minds in an unusual way, did put themselves into a state of egoless creativity, which permitted them to have insights so remarkable that by means of these they were able to make their greatest and most original discoveries.
Lord Tennyson was accustomed to pass into "an ecstatic state" and had a formula for inducing it (Prince, 1963:144). Tennyson says in a letter written in 1794:
1 have had ... a kind of walking trance ... when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating my own name to myself silently, till, all at once out of the intensity and conscious of the individuality, the individuality itself seems to dissolve and fade away into boundless being ...
Prince (1963:174) similarly describes the inception of Uncle Tom's Cabin quoting from the biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe:
Mrs. Stowe was seated in her pew in the college church at Brunswick, during the communion service ... Suddenly like the unrolling of a picture scroll, the scene of the death of Uncle Tom seemed to pass before her ... She was so affected she could scarcely keep from weeping ... That Sunday afternoon she went to her room, locked the door and wrote out, substantially as it appears ... the chapter called "The Death of Uncle Tom". Prince concludes:
The writing of this chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabinhas many analogies in authorship without conscious participation in the composition, to the same with conscious effort, and yet such facility that it seems as though, in the main, the material gushed up from a concealed spring.
Evidence that creative persons do, in fact, have an easier relationship with their inner selves is forthcoming from several sources. MacKinnon (1972) in a paper entitled "Creativity and Transliminal Experience"
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adduces proof for the hypothesis that creative persons experience greater ease in moving from conscious to unconscious states. Katz (1973) in doctoral study, exposed subliminal material to creative students and constricted controls, and the results clearly indicated that the creative group was superior in making use of the preconscious stimulus in response or reproduction.
There seems little need to pile up further evidence in this regard, since it is notable that the relation between creativity and the preconscious is much stronger than the various relationships in the previous section. Indeed their correlations with creative process can be looked upon as effects of their contact with the collective preconscious. In two earlier books (1972, 1974) we have given extensive coverage to this point, so we shall not prolong the argument here. But creativity as the relationship with the collective preconscious is only the beginning of the expansion of man's mind which we have identified as psychedelic. We shall pursue this development in the next section.
4.37 Creativity as Evidence of Mental Health and Self-Actualization
a) Introduction.A final way of looking at creativity is to regard it as early evidence of progress in mental health and self-actualization. The amount of creativity, other things being equal, may be regarded as a barometer of one's mental health. Maslow (Anderson, 1958:88) elaborates this idea further in saying: "The creativity of my subjects seemed to be an epiphenomenon of their greater wholesomeness and integration, which is what 'self-actualized' implies." It is as natural to express creativity under conditions of high mental health as it is for a black object when heated to radiate electromagnetic waves of heat and light.
The creative person is not necessarily perfect and without flaw. Actually, creativity occurs early in the development of the mentally healthy individual and promises the continuation of such mental health, much as ego strength predicts the successful termination of therapy. Creative performance tends to influence development in the direction of mental health, as fruit on a tree or dividends on a stock promise the future vitality of an organism.
After a careful case study investigation of the influence of mental health on creativity, Fried (1964) concluded that increased mental health as established through therapy improved artistic work habits, freed and sublimated aggressive, destructive tendencies into productive work patterns, reduced omnipotent fantasy which had caused the artists to destroy many of their works which were below the masterpiece level, and improved human relations which tended to preserve creative
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energy. The creativity increase in these artists undergoing therapy appeared as an early dividend resulting from their increased mental health.
The essence of process toward both greater mental health and greater creativity lies in the strengthening and developing of the preconscious so that it enlarges to assume a more important share in the tripartite membership of the individual psyche. This aggrandizement signals improved mental health and progress toward self-actualization, of which creative performance is an early indication. McLuhan and the existentialists emphasize a better balance between rational and pararational aspects of the psyche, and perhaps in this instance they are merely restating the thesis which has just been illustrated here.
b) General Research on Self-Actualization. Damm (1970) after analyzing studies of Arnold (1961), Blatt (1964), MacKinnon (1964), Barron (1963), Roe (1963), and Gerber (1965) on the relationship between creativity and mental health in adults, concludes that a strong relationship exists. Damm (1970) found students high in intelligence and creativity are more self-actualized as measured by Shostrom's (1966) Personal Orientation Inventory than students who are high in intelligence only. He concluded that students who obtained high scores on both areas were superior in self- actualization and recommended that the development of both intelligence and creative abilities should be a prime educational goal.
Hallman (1963), speaking about self-actualization, says:
Empirically, this criterion is supported by the great wealth of data which has been reported. Maslow (1956) has spoken most forcefully on this theme. He equates creativity with the state of psychological health, and this with the self-actualization process. There is no exception to this rule, he says. "Creativity is an universal characteristic of self-actualizing people." This form of creativeness reaches beyond special-talent creativeness; it is a fundamental characteristic of human nature. It touches whatever activity the healthy person is engaged in.
Craig (1966) reviewed trait theories of creativity and listed four personality correlates which were congruent with Maslow's holistic scheme of self-actualization and character integration. Newton (1968) in doctoral research found high correlation between progress toward self-actualization and intelligence.
Moustakas (1967) attempted to conceptualize creativity in terms of self-growth and self-renewal by stressing the uniqueness of the individual and his potentialities for mental health.
Helder, in doctoral research (1968) contrasted mystical and peak
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experiences found in the more open creative stance with traditional perceptual-cognitive consciousness. It is interesting to note that Maslow in his famous study of self-actualizing persons, found none who were not creative. In imitation of Maslow's work, we present some characteristics of self -actualizing persons which seem to be related to their creativity as follows: a) introduction b) general research on self-actualization, c) joy, content, and expectation of good, d) serendipity, e) increased control over environment, f) sense of destiny, g) acceptance of self, others, and nature, h) spontaneity, i) detachment and autonomy, j) Gemeinschaftsgefuhl, k) a philosophical and unhostile sense of humor, 1) psychological and semantic flexibility, and m) the "witness-phenomenon." These aspects represent the maturing of the creative phase of development, or the spread of the function through man's mind which signals increasing readiness for the next level of mind expansion.
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Rogers (1968) in unique doctoral research investigated the childhoods of self-actualizing persons (identified on the POI), using the high and low fifteen out of 183 undergraduate males. The degree and variety of common participation among members of the family was significantly greater in the families of the self-actualizing students, with their parents more approving, more trusting, and more lenient. Fisher (1972) using the POI on nominated paranormals, found a trend for paranormals to score in the direction of self-actualization. McClain and Andrews (1969) has 139 students write about their most wonderful experience, and found evidence that those who wrote about peak experiences were more self-actualized than those who did not. Thorne and Piskin (1968) did a factor analysis on successful executives and found five factors which they claimed were related to self- actualization: secure individualism, egocentrism, doing right, self-determination, and independent self-assertion. Garfield (1968) in doctoral research found that subjects whose mental health and growth were improved by a psychotherapy treatment of fifteen weeks, showed significantly greater gains in creativity than a control group. Blanchard (1970) investigated the psychodynamics of the peak-experience and reported that "the creative act pushed the boundaries of the self . . . " He stressed both the exhilaration arid danger in the greater creativity which the peak-experience releases. Frankl (1966:97ff) in talking about self-transcendence says that motivational theories based on homeostatic principles overlook the satisfaction which is intrinsic to finding more meaning and order in life as a result of peak-experiences.
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The self-actualization explanation of creativity is not just another way of looking at the subject; for some it is the only way. The mind expanding aspect is seen as a fundamental property of life, with creativity the aurora of the new dawn. Barron (1968:305) echoes this view:
The tendency of life then is toward the expansion of consciousness. In a sense, a description of means for the expansion of consciousness has been the central theme of this book, and it is in this evolutionary tendency that such diverse phenomena as psychotherapy, surprising or unexpected self-renewal, the personally evolved and deepened forms of religious belief, creative imagination, mysticism, and deliberately induced changes of
consciousness through the use of chemicals find a common bond. c) Joy, Content, and Expectation of Good. One of the most interesting aspects of creativity is that affective development seems to go along with cognitive development, so that positive feelings about oneself, others, and the universe are felt by most creative persons. There is in particular an absence of generalized fear, anxiety, and insecurity, which is perhaps related to a wider competence, but seems more due to a dawning realization of the beneficence of the cosmos. The optimist is luckier than the pessimist, and creative people tend to be optimists. Perhaps this is because creativity represents the ability to solve new problems so that one is not fearful of the future. One is reminded of Bucke's characteristics of illumination (White, 1972:87ff) which mentions joy, assurance, a sense of immortality, the vanishing of the fear of sin and death. One is also reminded of the reply of Thoreau on his death-bed when asked if he wanted to make his peace with God: "We have never fallen out."
d) Serendipity. The princes of Serendip upon being sent on missions by their father to discover certain things, discovered, instead, other things for which they were not looking. The word has entered the language since it expresses a phenomenon which occurs to creative people: namely the situation of which Einstein speaks: if we quiet the mind and relax, we find to our surprise that "a new idea modestly presents itself." The discovery of things for which one was not looking, indicates that the collective preconscious is wiser than we are, for it seems to know what we need to discover, even though our conscious mind does not. In this sense serendipity replaces the random aspects of nature with an ordering in the mind which is a great time saver.
e) Increased Control over Environment. There are several senses in which creative persons gain this control. In the first place there is the purely outer consequence that a creative product solves an
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environmental challenge with a higher response. In the second place, the fact that one is creative gives one the potentiality to solve the next crisis, and hence, to have potential control. In the third place, because creativity represents an intuitive brush with the noumenon, it involves some kind of esoteric control of the environment. We shall call this control "orthocognition" and discuss it further in section 4.5; healing, in some respects the "twin" of creativity, is an aspect of this increased control.
f) Sense of Destiny. Because the creative person sees some order and plan in the universe, and believes himself to be a part of that plan, he has a sense of destiny. He is ordered in the sense that the atoms in a piece of magnetized iron are ordered. Like the last two sections, the concept involves an escalation from randomness to order, or if you are a physics major, a decrease in entropy. The creative person also becomes more independent of time, and more conscious of past-present-future all at once, and this too gives him a perspective which others interpret as a sense of destiny.
g) Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature. If I can't accept me, I can't accept you, and if I can't accept you, I certainly can't accept those other even more dreadful people. Consequently the ability to accept ourselves (with all our faults), our loved ones (with all their faults), and finally the rest of the world (with all its faults) is a real barometer of maturity. This acceptance signals development away from egocentricity and the identity crisis. Maslow (1954:207-8) points out that self-actualizing people can accept the animal part of themselves without neurotic disgust; they can accept others because of their lack of defensiveness, but show distaste for cant and hypocrisy in social relationships. They accept nature because they see reality more clearly and without the spectacles of prejudice: "One does not complain about water because it is wet."
h) Spontaneity. Creative persons are spontaneous and free. They are not constricted or compartmentalized. They have an open, free, loving life style which resembles that of an artist more than that of an undertaker. They are intraceptive in being open to feelings; they are therefore childlike, although not immature. Maslow (1954:208-9) points out that the behavior of self-actualizing persons is marked by simpleness and naturalness. Spontaneity is related to the essential autonomy of the person of which we shall next speak.
i) Detachment and Autonomy. Creative persons are inner-oriented, and need privacy and some degree of withdrawal. They are in the world but not of it. They "march to the music of a distant drum" and hence need quiet in order to hear it. While not in the least
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immoral, they are often unconventional; they obey a higher inner law, rather than a lower outer statute. When Thoreau was in jail for refusing to support the Mexican War and Emerson bailed him out, Emerson is supposed to have said: "Henry, why are you here?" to which Thoreau replied: "Ralph, why are you not here?" This exchange is an excellent example of autonomy, as Thoreau's three years at Walden Pond is an excellent example of detachment. Creative persons appear to have psychological needs for both of these aspects, even though their expression often causes pain to their more conventional friends. Maslow (1954:212-213) discusses both of these qualities in the self-actualizing person. Of detachment he says: "They like solitude and privacy more than the average person." Their extreme concentration which requires privacy is interpreted as coldness by some people. Their autonomy results from a transcendence of lower orders of the Maslow hierarchy which require others, to one which requires the best in oneself. As a result, these persons are relatively stable in adversity, and maintain serenity and content in the midst of the vicissitudes of life.
j) Gemeinschaftsgefuhl (Brotherly love). This quality is often seen in higher creatives. It manifests itself in a general reverence for life (Schweitzer); "We are all tarred with the same brush" (Gandhi), or a broad humanitarianism (Eleanor Roosevelt). American culture tends to suppress this gentle quality in favor of violence and self-interest, so it is often more seen in other peoples; it is a much more noticeable aspect of New Zealand life, for example. It is fostered by a sense of communitas, and it answers Cain's question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Maslow (1954:217) says of this quality: "They have for human beings in general a deep feeling of identity and affection." He notices their "general desire to help the whole human race" "as if they were all members of a single family."
k) A Philosophical and Unhostile Sense of Humor.It may seem surprising that Maslow would mention this quality, which is denigrated as a rather low one, but is in fact a characteristic of the highest importance. Whenever you see a humorist of this type, always suspect a philosopher of deep wisdom underneath: Mark Twain, Voltaire, Artemus Ward, Mr. Dooley, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Will Rogers, and Art Buchwald are all examples. Humor of this type stems from semantic flexibility plus the ability to see behind appearances to reality. It also requires ego-transcendence or psychological objectivity. The humor must be unhostile (like Mr. Magoo of the movie shorts), not concerned with our insensitivity to the woes of
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other people. It is closely connected (as was seen in Lincoln's stories) with the telling of parables, which is a kind of verbal analogy. Humor is a peculiar characteristic of creative persons, in that it is one of the earliest predictors (appearing even in childhood) as well as being one of the highest evidences. Maslow (1954:222) found humor common to all of his self-actualizers. It was not, however, the common type of humor; it was "the humor of the real because it consists in large part in poking fun at human beings in general when they are foolish. It masked a deeper philosophy.
1) Psychological and Semantic Flexibility. One of the very interesting aspects of continued creativity is the development of a very considerable degree of psychological (affective) and semantic (cognitive) flexibility, which turn out to have emergent properties. Both cut down on the inertia of the mind, making it easier and more expeditious in the change required for new insights. Rothenberg (1971)calls this process "Janusian thinking," which he defines as the capacity to conceive and utilize two or more opposite or contradictory ideas simultaneously. The higher reconciliation of these ideas often leads to a creative breakthrough (e.g., the "complementarity principle" in physics). Semantic flexibility also allows the individual to avoid semantic traps which engulf the formal operations philosopher; one zeros in on the similarity of process not being confused by the dissimilarity of different languages used to describe the process. This sort of semantic flexibility leads to "problem-centering" and "problem-finding" so noticeable in really creative persons, whereas most other people get lost in the maze of symptoms, or in their outraged reactions to the situation. Psychological flexibility is an evidence of the dismantling of the egocentricity so characteristic of earlier stages. The truly creative person does not need to support his ego at the expense of the crisis situation. Finally, such flexibility leads to an ability to understand and deal with general systems theory, another effort at looking beneath the empirical to find logical unity in seeming diversity.
m) The "Witness" Phenomenon. Although not mentioned by Maslow, this effect is also part of the final perfection of creative performance. It was earlier suggested by Huxley (1954),who observing the limiting function of personality structure on consciousness said:
We should do well to consider much more seriously the type of theory which Bergson put forward in connection with memory and sense perception. The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive ...
(page 310) This"reducing valve" theory that each of us represents "mind at large" but that the brain protects us from all this information by shutting off most of it, has significant consequences for the theory of creativity as an opening to this collective preconscious. An outcome is that the more creative we become, the more of this input we can assimilate. Sri Aurobindo (Satprem, 1968:43) calls this phenomenon "the witness," for part of ourselves witnesses the cosmic mind within us thinking on many aspects of different problems at once, whereas our individual mind can think only of one. Discovering the witness in ourself discloses that "the mind is not an instrument of knowledge, but only an organizer of knowledge" (Ibid:45). All this cosmic activity is going on in consciousness, and our expanded consciousness taps into it.
Underhill (1930:366) makes the same point in noting the similarity between creativity and mystic ecstasy:
As the saints are caught up in God, so these are caught up in their visions; these partial apprehensions of the Absolute Life. . . . Their greatest creations are translations to us, not of something they have thought, but of something they have known in a moment of ecstatic union. . . .
4.38 Creative Organization: General Systems Theory
In the lower levels of creative production, the individual engages in creative problem-solving. In the higher levels, the mind becomes an organizer of the knowledge which wells up in it from creative openings in the preconscious. Organization is anti-entropy; it is order in place of disorder. Consequently, it validates our general theory of creativity to find that it introduces "a new and higher order" into experience. One would expect this emergent property to occur if creativity is a stepping stone on the pathway to self-actualization.
The essence of this order or organization is to find unity in diversity, the same process in different products, a universe filled with isomorphisms. Metaphor, analogy, and homology are primitive aspects of this process, but there are higher considerations to which we need to turn.
There are several examples of this emerging order in man's understanding of nature. Mathematics, especially set theory is one, cybernetics, based on the feedback principle another, and information theory a third. Systems and human engineering theories are a fourth, decision theory a fifth, and general semantics a sixth. Since each of these areas has its own extensive literature, we shall turn to a seventh, that of general systems theory, which is far younger, less organized, and much less well known.
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It is generally accepted that while some earlier writers had glimpsed the outlines of the subject, general systems theory was founded by von Bertalanffy in his classic of the same title (1968).
Bertalanffy (1968:vii) defines his subject as follows:
Systems theory is a broad view which far transcends technological problems and demands, a reorientation that has become necessary in science in general . . . It is operative with varying degrees of success, in various realms, and heralds a new world view of considerable impact.
Bertalanffy (1968:38) states the purposes and aims of general systems theory as: "a tendency toward integration, centered in a general theory of systems, aiming at exact theory in nonphysical fields, which develop universal principles toward a goal of unity in science, which can lead to integration in scientific education."
Although Bertalanffy had published before then, general systems theory got its formal start in an informal meeting in 1954 at Palo Alto of K. Boulding, the economist; A. Rapoport, the biomathematician; R. Gerard, the physiologist; and Bertalanffy. They founded the society for General Systems Research, which later became a division of AAAS. The yearbooks General Systems edited by A. Rapoport have served as the house organ.
The genius of Bertalanffy, the founder of General Systems Theory, was according to Laszlo (1972:4-8) that he was the first to recognize that the process of organization of scientific knowledge might be as important as the product. This concept involved holism rather than analysis, integration rather than differentiation of scientific knowledge, the unity of nature in a diversity of forms, and the emphasis on scientific humanism rather than mechanical technology. It has come, concludes Laszlo (1972:11) "to represent a new paradigm of contemporary scientific thought," and it provides science with a new and very powerful tool.
Buckley (1967:39), a sociologist, points out that systems theory concentrates on organization and involves the following advantages:
(1) a common vocabulary across several disciplines;
(2) a technique for treating organized complexity;
(3) a synthetic approach where a holistic analysis must be made;
(4) a study of relations not entities; and
(5) an operational study of purposefulness and goal-seeking behavior.
Bertalanffy (1968:81ff) also notes that general systems theory depends on isomorphisms. These in turn rest on cognition, reality, and the organization of the universe in mathematical terms. He points out analogy (superficial similarities), homologies (identical basic laws in different disciplines) and the explanation of specific laws as special
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cases. These general notions "acquire exact expression ... only in mathematical language."
Others who have made efforts in the direction of general systems, but whose work is too demanding for our summary treatment are the physicist lberall (1972), the economist Boulding, the linguist Watzlawick (1967), the physiologist Gerard, the educator Clark (Laszlo, 1972) and the mathematician Rapoport (Laszlo, 1972).
Of all the ways of expressing the basic concepts of general systems theory, the most useful is that of set theory in mathematics. It is none other than Laszlo (1972b:19) who says: "Looking at the world in terms of such sets of integrated relations constitutes the systems view."
The individual who has contributed most to the application of mathematical set theory to general systems is Stuart Dodd, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Washington. (A summary of his Epicosm Model of the Universe will be found in the Appendix.) Briefly (but incompletely) stated, actants (the set of all names) interact in all possible ways to organize the cosmos (the set of all things namable) in all of its parts. Nature works in the cosmos to organize creation in terms of exponents (logarithms) to the base two (bit-logs).
Bertalanffy (1968:42) points out that the bit-log of N equals the amount of information from N questions. "This measure of information happens to be similar to negative entropy, since entropy is also defined as a logarithm of probability. But entropy is a measure of disorder; hence negative entropy is a measure of order or organization . . . "
So Dodd's system works in bit-logs, with four fundamental operations: pairings (2x), squaring (x2) , norming (2x), and fulfilling (xx). These operations are special cases of the enumerative generator (1 + 1 / n) n , which give rise to basic constants (such as the square root of 3), whose four fundamental function values constantly recur.21 Since general systems is viewed as the only science of which all other sciences are but applications, these basic sets and constants are related to all physical laws and constants (such as E=mc2 and the speed of light), all of which may be derived from them.
4.39 Conclusion
We conclude this section with some general observations about creativity.
1. Creativity is an emergent function, an unexpected escalation from Piagetian formal operations. It involves divergent instead of convergent thinking. It is the lowest level of consciousness to show a distinctly "other-than-human" quality in the aspect of creative
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inspiration which forces most researchers to admit its intuitional aspect.
2. Creativity is more than problem-solving, more than mere rational semantic factors of intellect. Its essence involves openness to preconscious elements. This psychological openness, rather than "connectedness" is the foundation of the bridging between the conscious ego and the numinous element.
3. Creativity involves the "gentling of the preconscious," since it allows the conscious mind to gain insights from, and to establish an intuitive relationship with, the preconscious. The joining of the individual and general minds (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane), seen earlier only in trance states, now becomes suffused with reality, so that it is closer within the reach of the conscious mind, and thus less irrational and frightening, and more humane and useful. The trauma and dread of the prototaxic numinous have been replaced with creative fantasy, and an intuitive relationship. It is this gentling, humanizing process exerted on the preconscious by creative function of the individual, which is the only proper preparation for the psychedelic graces. The absence of this creative experience, however, may place the individual at the mercy of untoward experiences (such as are found on bad drug trips) when he contacts the psychic area.
4. Creativity is also developmental, leading to self-actualization, for which it is a necessary prerequisite, and to high mental health which is also required for successful entry into the psychedelic graces.
5. Higher emergent aspects of creativity also appear in individuals such as the "witness phenomenon," in which the individual witnesses an almost autonomous development of ideas in his own mind, often several at a time.
6. Creativity also leads to higher organizations of experience, such as general systems theory, in which isomorphisms and homologues play an important part in uncovering the unity in diversity.
7. Finally, creativity has a holistic quality, which restores the balance between right and left hemisphere function, between analog and digital computer aspects of thinking. But we leave the last word on this subject to Hall (1972) who says:
Since creative thought is the most important thing which makes people different from monkeys, it should be treated as a commodity more precious than gold, and preserved with the greatest care.
Man's mind is a device for bringing infinite mind into manifestation in time; creativity is the commencement of this actualization. (page 314)
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana -4) 22
4.41 General Introduction
Through a combination of experimental psychology, computer technology, and electrophysiology, it has now become possible to increase knowledge of the brain's functions and consciousness, and it seems that it may be possible to perceive and control some of the brain functions.
The primary subject of concern is the possibility of learning to be aware of the presence of one type of brain wave, the alpha type, and the possible psychological and physiological benefits that may occur from such learning and control.
Alpha wave biofeedback is a modern and enactive method of learning to generate brain waves of alpha (8-13 hertz) and theta (4-8 hertz) frequencies. It may surprise the reader that such a mechanical technique should be included as a syntaxic procedure, but we shall attempt to supply evidence that this is indeed the case. Basically, through the use of a light, buzzer, or bell, when alpha waves are being generated, the subject is taught consciously to gain control of what appears in effect to be a meditative state. Such wave frequencies are found in yogis, Zen masters, and highly creative persons. This fact does not prove that meditative states are caused by alpha waves, since the waves may be the effect of the state. The testimony, however, of those who are "into alpha," in its mental health and serendipity implications (all positive) indicates that this subject deserves careful investigation.
There is wide agreement in the research literature that the alpha rhythm represents a kind of synchrony in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex; Banquet (1973) noticed this effect in meditating subjects. Eleanor Criswell (1969) speculates that: "If we reduce cortical activity and still the mind, we are allowing more primitive brain structures to have more free play . . . more unification."
Green, et al (1971a) say:
The immediate value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives the subject an immediate indication of his progress in learning to control a given physiological variable . . . This makes it possible to detect and promote through training voluntary changes in physiological variables that are particularly related to and indicative of changes in states of attention, consciousness, and awareness - the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms. The beta rhythm (13-26hz) is associated with what we might call active thinking, or active attention - attention focused on the outside world or on solving concrete problems; the alpha
(page 315) rhythm (8-13 hz) is associated with a more internally focused state; the mind is alert but not focused on external processes nor engaged in organized logical thinking; the theta rhythm (4-8 hz) is usually associated with unconscious or nearly unconscious states; it appears as consciousness slips toward unawareness or drowsiness, and is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like images. A fourth frequency band, the delta rhythm (0-4 hz) is primarily associated with deep sleep. In actuality there is no such thing as training in brain-wave control; there is training only in the elicitation of certain subjective states which are accompanied by oscillating voltages in the central nervous system detected on the subject's scalp.39
Hoover (1971) points out that in discussing biofeedback training, semantics become a problem in the use of the terms "controlling" one's brain waves. In biofeedback training a person is not learning to directly control the neuronal electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Rather he is learning to control the subjective or mental events that are indicated by the presence of alpha or theta. In using the word "control" then, it should be thought of in this way rather than the usual meaning of the term.
Kamiya has been investigating the alpha wave and its potential for many years. He has found that the alpha wave is the most prominent rhythm in the whole realm of brain activity and that the waves tend to come in bursts of a few waves to many hundred. In 1958, he compared EEG's made during waking and sleeping. In these comparisons, he became fascinated with the alpha waves that came and went in the waking EEG's and wondered if subjects could be taught awareness of this internal state. He summarizes his work (Stoyva and Kamiya 1968:201):
The basic working assumptions in the Kamiya alpha control studies and in similar experiments is this: If measurable physiological events are associated with discriminable mental events, than it will be possible to reinforce in the presence of the physiological event, and in so doing: a) enable S to discriminate better whether the physiological event and the associated mental event are present, b) perhaps, also, enable S to acquire some degree of control over the physiological event and the associated mental event.
Barbara Brown (1970b) has also experimented with alpha wave control and its implications in psychophysiology. In one study she attempted to identify aspects of consciousness as moods and feeling states.
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The results showed that effective enhancement of alpha activity was more regularly associated with pleasant thoughts and feelings. The uniqueness of the experiment lay in the fact that there was no external stimuli or reinforcement for the subject-instrument feedback circuit. There was no stimulus or response within the feedback circuit that could be isolated as such.
In her new book, Brown (1974) makes a number of important points about biofeedback. The role of biofeedback in muscle relaxation is very healthful, and in addition induces a state of reverie with spontaneous images which may generate desirable energies and emotions. She notes that biofeedback research has led to rediscovery of the human will, which seems to play an important part in many of the therapies derived from biofeedback. Among the most important of these are voluntary control of heart beat and pressure.23 She sees biofeedback as reducing tensions in society generally, and lessening the task of psychologists and counselors; she also feels that it may be useful in inducing meditation and in encouraging creativity. She concludes: "Biofeedback may guide the mind in a journey through inner space into far-distant spheres of consciousness."
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation24
Meditative states have long been known to produce altered psychological states. Two of the most popular forms of meditation are Yoga and Zen. Yoga means "union" and is usually defined as a higher consciousness achieved through a full rested and relaxed body and a fully awake and relaxed mind. It may be achieved through strenuous physical exercise, focusing on one particular function, i.e. respiration, or by focusing on mental processes. Zen is basically sitting meditation which is a kind of religious exercise.
There is some evidence that an increase in alpha production is generally found in meditative states. Kasamatsu and Hirai (1969) in studies with subjects who had varied experience in Zen training found EEG changes with the appearance of alpha waves without regard to opened eyes. The alpha waves increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency as the meditation progresses. In the later stage of meditation, theta waves also appear. The results seem to indicate that the degree of the subject's Zen state and the number of years spent in Zen training influence the appearance of the waves.
The investigators indentified four stages which were characterized by changes in the EEG (1969:493):
Stage I - a slight change which is characterized by the appearance of alpha waves in spite of opened eyes. Stage II - the increase in amplitude of persistent alpha waves.
(page 317) Stage III - the decrease of alpha frequency. Stage IV - the appearance of the rhythmical theta train, which is the final change of EEG during Zen meditation, but does not always occur.
In comparisons of the EEG's recorded during meditation with those of hypnotic trance and sleep, the changes of Stages I, II, and III could not be clearly differentiated from those seen in hypnagogic state of hypnotic sleep. The changes were more persistent during meditation and the deeper sleep pattern did not appear.
Anand, et al. (1961) found similar results in Yogis. Both their normal and resting EEG records showed predominant alpha activity. There was increased alpha amplitude modulation during meditation. The subjects also had the ability to maintain high alpha even if presented with various sensory stimuli during meditation.
The research that has been conducted on biofeedback training has mainly recorded alpha waves from the occipital areas of the cortex. The high amplitude low frequency alpha patterns have been found to shift from the occipital region at the rear of the head to central and frontal regions. Little biofeedback training has been attempted in the central and frontal areas. Usually it is more difficult to develop alpha in these areas while it occurs naturally in most individuals in the occipital area. Even so, it may be possible with biofeedback training to achieve in a few months, what it often takes years of disciplined meditative practice to achieve. Both meditation and alpha control require passive attention, physical relaxation and a feeling of flowing with the inner and outer world.
Wallace and Benson (1972) in a study of subjects who practice "transcendental meditation" found physiological changes as well as increased alpha waves. This type of meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and does not require great periods of training. In this meditative state, Wallace and Benson found that their subjects manifested the physiological signs of a "wakeful, hypometabolic state." There were reductions in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, and the rate and volume of respiration. There was a slight increase in the acidity of the arterial blood, a marked decrease in the blood lactate level. The heart rate slowed, the skin resistance increased and the EEG pattern showed intensification of slow alpha waves with occasional theta wave activity. All of these findings are similar to those found in Yoga and Zen monks who have had fifteen to twenty years of experience in meditation. Perhaps alpha wave training may lead to the ability or produce these physiological changes in a short time span.
(page 318)
Kawin-Toomim(1972) says in this regard:
The possibility of using alpha control to reach "altered states of consciousness" is an exciting one ... To manipulate alpha is only to alter the occurrence of a natural state. This, apparently, is one of the things meditators do after years of training . . . It is tempting ... to think that ... training such patterns by the quicker, easier biofeedback methods will provide the same total subjective experience.
She also notes the bond which has been repeatedly established in these pages between self-actualization and the direction of psychotherapy:
Alpha feedback is a powerful tool for the psychotherapist. The possibility of training subjects at will to experience the deep reverie and increased ability to visualize as in "awake dreaming," often found in low frequency alpha and theta brain activity, is a valuable tool for psychotherapists who use these experiences with their clients.
Gellhorn and Kiely (Miller and others, 1973:488) believe that there are similarities between yoga meditation and REM sleep. They resemble hypnosis in the suspension of will, in cortical arousal combined with trophotropic relaxation in the muscles. There is also vivid perceptual imagery and the loss of the sense of time and space. Stoyva (Miller and others 1973:492) also reports that hypnagogic imagery associated with 4-7 hertz theta rhythm is of a similar nature, and associated with muscle relaxation. Green, Green and Walters (1970) associate this hypnagogic revery state with creativity. The common element here seems to be an opening of the conscious mind to the preconscious, and biofeedback appears to be a viable method of making this happen.
Section III of the 1972 Aldine Annual on biofeedback (Shapiro and others 1972:145-191) is devoted to the development of consciousness and creativity through biofeedback methods, containing articles by Budzynski on twilight states, Green on healing and creativity enhancement through alpha, and Nideffer on alpha and the development of human potential. Again, the testimony of this research is to the mutual relationship of these various processes.
It appears to us that the claims of alpha wave biofeedback to facilitate the mastery of meditation through operant conditioning techniques is an assertion which needs to be examined very seriously. After all, alpha wave training is a technique which may be used with any meditational approach. In this day of instant everything, it may even
(page 319)
be possible to speed up the process of self-actualization by such a means. At least the contingency deserves a careful exploration. From what has been said previously, it is obvious that the facilitation of the alpha state may not only bring one to the terminal of the "great computer," but that it will promote increased concentration, learning, and recall on the cognitive side, and pleasure and relaxation on the affective. There is not space here in this discussion on meditation to document these possibilities more fully, but there are good grounds for such speculation. We should not conclude, however, without at least one paragraph devoted to the relation between biofeedback and creativity.
4.43 Alpha and Creativity
There is perhaps some correlation between alpha-theta output and creativity. A state of reverie which is described by Green, Green, and Walters (1970) as a state of inward-turned abstract attention or internal scanning may be related to theta and low-frequency alpha. In this state there seems to be an increase of hypnagogic and dream-like images, pictures or words which must seem to spring into the mind. Many creative people such as writer Aldous Huxley, mathematician Poincare, and poet A. E. Housman, report that it is through a reverie state that their creative inspirations have come. Some researchers believe that creative persons have stumbled upon and then developed to a high degree the ability to visualize in the area in which they are creative.
Hard evidence on the relation of alpha generation to enhanced openness including creativity, ESP, and so forth, is not available. Honorton and Carbone (1971) failed to find a significant relationship between alpha generation and ESP. Lewis and Schmedler (1971) did find some relationship between high alpha and ESP, but they suggest that the relationship is not simple, and that each variable interacts with other factors. Engstrom and others (1970) in an experiment attempting the establishment of a relationship between EEG feedback training and hypnotic susceptibility concluded that alpha and hypnotic susceptibility are similar subjective states. This area would profit by more definitive research.
It is possible that both the euphoria and the alpha waves are mere epiphenomena indicating that the subject is in an altered state of consciousness which is particularly conducive to terminal access to the collective computer, and hence to telepathy, healing, precognition, and the rest of the psychic powers. Watson (1973:257) suspects that the connection between telepathy and the alpha rhythm is crucial, and cites the Russian experiments of Popov which indicated that
(page 320)
each time telepathy occurred, alpha rhythms were found. He concludes (1973:256): "It seems certain that both telepathy and psychokinesis occur only under certain psychological conditions and that these are the ones marked by the production of brain waves of a particular frequency." The theta rhythm seems to be the physiological correlate of psychokinesis, and the alpha rhythm does the same for telepathy.
In concluding the proper place of alpha wave biofeedback in the continuum of this chapter, one is struck by the fact that the symptoms of the state are much more cognitive than otherwise, and that it tends to resemble more that of meditation than it does that of dissociation. All evidence of the earlier suggestibility of the trance state has been lost, except the "passivity," and far from there being an excursion of the ego, it is obviously present, and functioning. In these characteristics the alpha state can hardly be said to represent a type of developmental forcing, and perhaps the worst that can be said of it is that it is a technique in search of a rationale. Indeed, the evidence from research in this section is so persuasive that it suggests that the presence of alpha might be regarded as the boundary marker between the dissociative trance of developmental forcing, and the more positive states of creativity and psychedelia.
4.39 Conclusion
We conclude this section with some general observations about creativity.
1. Creativity is an emergent function, an unexpected escalation from Piagetian formal operations. It involves divergent instead of convergent thinking. It is the lowest level of consciousness to show a distinctly "other-than-human" quality in the aspect of creative
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inspiration which forces most researchers to admit its intuitional aspect.
2. Creativity is more than problem-solving, more than mere rational semantic factors of intellect. Its essence involves openness to preconscious elements. This psychological openness, rather than "connectedness" is the foundation of the bridging between the conscious ego and the numinous element.
3. Creativity involves the "gentling of the preconscious," since it allows the conscious mind to gain insights from, and to establish an intuitive relationship with, the preconscious. The joining of the individual and general minds (as if by osmosis through a permeable membrane), seen earlier only in trance states, now becomes suffused with reality, so that it is closer within the reach of the conscious mind, and thus less irrational and frightening, and more humane and useful. The trauma and dread of the prototaxic numinous have been replaced with creative fantasy, and an intuitive relationship. It is this gentling, humanizing process exerted on the preconscious by creative function of the individual, which is the only proper preparation for the psychedelic graces. The absence of this creative experience, however, may place the individual at the mercy of untoward experiences (such as are found on bad drug trips) when he contacts the psychic area.
4. Creativity is also developmental, leading to self-actualization, for which it is a necessary prerequisite, and to high mental health which is also required for successful entry into the psychedelic graces.
5. Higher emergent aspects of creativity also appear in individuals such as the "witness phenomenon," in which the individual witnesses an almost autonomous development of ideas in his own mind, often several at a time.
6. Creativity also leads to higher organizations of experience, such as general systems theory, in which isomorphisms and homologues play an important part in uncovering the unity in diversity.
7. Finally, creativity has a holistic quality, which restores the balance between right and left hemisphere function, between analog and digital computer aspects of thinking. But we leave the last word on this subject to Hall (1972) who says:
Since creative thought is the most important thing which makes people different from monkeys, it should be treated as a commodity more precious than gold, and preserved with the greatest care.
Man's mind is a device for bringing infinite mind into manifestation in time; creativity is the commencement of this actualization. (page 314)
4.4 BIOFEEDBACK (Jhana -4) 22
4.41 General Introduction
Through a combination of experimental psychology, computer technology, and electrophysiology, it has now become possible to increase knowledge of the brain's functions and consciousness, and it seems that it may be possible to perceive and control some of the brain functions.
The primary subject of concern is the possibility of learning to be aware of the presence of one type of brain wave, the alpha type, and the possible psychological and physiological benefits that may occur from such learning and control.
Alpha wave biofeedback is a modern and enactive method of learning to generate brain waves of alpha (8-13 hertz) and theta (4-8 hertz) frequencies. It may surprise the reader that such a mechanical technique should be included as a syntaxic procedure, but we shall attempt to supply evidence that this is indeed the case. Basically, through the use of a light, buzzer, or bell, when alpha waves are being generated, the subject is taught consciously to gain control of what appears in effect to be a meditative state. Such wave frequencies are found in yogis, Zen masters, and highly creative persons. This fact does not prove that meditative states are caused by alpha waves, since the waves may be the effect of the state. The testimony, however, of those who are "into alpha," in its mental health and serendipity implications (all positive) indicates that this subject deserves careful investigation.
There is wide agreement in the research literature that the alpha rhythm represents a kind of synchrony in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex; Banquet (1973) noticed this effect in meditating subjects. Eleanor Criswell (1969) speculates that: "If we reduce cortical activity and still the mind, we are allowing more primitive brain structures to have more free play . . . more unification."
Green, et al (1971a) say:
The immediate value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives the subject an immediate indication of his progress in learning to control a given physiological variable . . . This makes it possible to detect and promote through training voluntary changes in physiological variables that are particularly related to and indicative of changes in states of attention, consciousness, and awareness - the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms. The beta rhythm (13-26hz) is associated with what we might call active thinking, or active attention - attention focused on the outside world or on solving concrete problems; the alpha
(page 315) rhythm (8-13 hz) is associated with a more internally focused state; the mind is alert but not focused on external processes nor engaged in organized logical thinking; the theta rhythm (4-8 hz) is usually associated with unconscious or nearly unconscious states; it appears as consciousness slips toward unawareness or drowsiness, and is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like images. A fourth frequency band, the delta rhythm (0-4 hz) is primarily associated with deep sleep. In actuality there is no such thing as training in brain-wave control; there is training only in the elicitation of certain subjective states which are accompanied by oscillating voltages in the central nervous system detected on the subject's scalp.39
Hoover (1971) points out that in discussing biofeedback training, semantics become a problem in the use of the terms "controlling" one's brain waves. In biofeedback training a person is not learning to directly control the neuronal electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Rather he is learning to control the subjective or mental events that are indicated by the presence of alpha or theta. In using the word "control" then, it should be thought of in this way rather than the usual meaning of the term.
Kamiya has been investigating the alpha wave and its potential for many years. He has found that the alpha wave is the most prominent rhythm in the whole realm of brain activity and that the waves tend to come in bursts of a few waves to many hundred. In 1958, he compared EEG's made during waking and sleeping. In these comparisons, he became fascinated with the alpha waves that came and went in the waking EEG's and wondered if subjects could be taught awareness of this internal state. He summarizes his work (Stoyva and Kamiya 1968:201):
The basic working assumptions in the Kamiya alpha control studies and in similar experiments is this: If measurable physiological events are associated with discriminable mental events, than it will be possible to reinforce in the presence of the physiological event, and in so doing: a) enable S to discriminate better whether the physiological event and the associated mental event are present, b) perhaps, also, enable S to acquire some degree of control over the physiological event and the associated mental event.
Barbara Brown (1970b) has also experimented with alpha wave control and its implications in psychophysiology. In one study she attempted to identify aspects of consciousness as moods and feeling states.
(page 316)
The results showed that effective enhancement of alpha activity was more regularly associated with pleasant thoughts and feelings. The uniqueness of the experiment lay in the fact that there was no external stimuli or reinforcement for the subject-instrument feedback circuit. There was no stimulus or response within the feedback circuit that could be isolated as such.
In her new book, Brown (1974) makes a number of important points about biofeedback. The role of biofeedback in muscle relaxation is very healthful, and in addition induces a state of reverie with spontaneous images which may generate desirable energies and emotions. She notes that biofeedback research has led to rediscovery of the human will, which seems to play an important part in many of the therapies derived from biofeedback. Among the most important of these are voluntary control of heart beat and pressure.23 She sees biofeedback as reducing tensions in society generally, and lessening the task of psychologists and counselors; she also feels that it may be useful in inducing meditation and in encouraging creativity. She concludes: "Biofeedback may guide the mind in a journey through inner space into far-distant spheres of consciousness."
4.42 Alpha Wave Training and Its Implications for Meditation24
Meditative states have long been known to produce altered psychological states. Two of the most popular forms of meditation are Yoga and Zen. Yoga means "union" and is usually defined as a higher consciousness achieved through a full rested and relaxed body and a fully awake and relaxed mind. It may be achieved through strenuous physical exercise, focusing on one particular function, i.e. respiration, or by focusing on mental processes. Zen is basically sitting meditation which is a kind of religious exercise.
There is some evidence that an increase in alpha production is generally found in meditative states. Kasamatsu and Hirai (1969) in studies with subjects who had varied experience in Zen training found EEG changes with the appearance of alpha waves without regard to opened eyes. The alpha waves increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency as the meditation progresses. In the later stage of meditation, theta waves also appear. The results seem to indicate that the degree of the subject's Zen state and the number of years spent in Zen training influence the appearance of the waves.
The investigators indentified four stages which were characterized by changes in the EEG (1969:493):
Stage I - a slight change which is characterized by the appearance of alpha waves in spite of opened eyes. Stage II - the increase in amplitude of persistent alpha waves.
(page 317) Stage III - the decrease of alpha frequency. Stage IV - the appearance of the rhythmical theta train, which is the final change of EEG during Zen meditation, but does not always occur.
In comparisons of the EEG's recorded during meditation with those of hypnotic trance and sleep, the changes of Stages I, II, and III could not be clearly differentiated from those seen in hypnagogic state of hypnotic sleep. The changes were more persistent during meditation and the deeper sleep pattern did not appear.
Anand, et al. (1961) found similar results in Yogis. Both their normal and resting EEG records showed predominant alpha activity. There was increased alpha amplitude modulation during meditation. The subjects also had the ability to maintain high alpha even if presented with various sensory stimuli during meditation.
The research that has been conducted on biofeedback training has mainly recorded alpha waves from the occipital areas of the cortex. The high amplitude low frequency alpha patterns have been found to shift from the occipital region at the rear of the head to central and frontal regions. Little biofeedback training has been attempted in the central and frontal areas. Usually it is more difficult to develop alpha in these areas while it occurs naturally in most individuals in the occipital area. Even so, it may be possible with biofeedback training to achieve in a few months, what it often takes years of disciplined meditative practice to achieve. Both meditation and alpha control require passive attention, physical relaxation and a feeling of flowing with the inner and outer world.
Wallace and Benson (1972) in a study of subjects who practice "transcendental meditation" found physiological changes as well as increased alpha waves. This type of meditation was taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and does not require great periods of training. In this meditative state, Wallace and Benson found that their subjects manifested the physiological signs of a "wakeful, hypometabolic state." There were reductions in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, and the rate and volume of respiration. There was a slight increase in the acidity of the arterial blood, a marked decrease in the blood lactate level. The heart rate slowed, the skin resistance increased and the EEG pattern showed intensification of slow alpha waves with occasional theta wave activity. All of these findings are similar to those found in Yoga and Zen monks who have had fifteen to twenty years of experience in meditation. Perhaps alpha wave training may lead to the ability or produce these physiological changes in a short time span.
(page 318)
Kawin-Toomim(1972) says in this regard:
The possibility of using alpha control to reach "altered states of consciousness" is an exciting one ... To manipulate alpha is only to alter the occurrence of a natural state. This, apparently, is one of the things meditators do after years of training . . . It is tempting ... to think that ... training such patterns by the quicker, easier biofeedback methods will provide the same total subjective experience.
She also notes the bond which has been repeatedly established in these pages between self-actualization and the direction of psychotherapy:
Alpha feedback is a powerful tool for the psychotherapist. The possibility of training subjects at will to experience the deep reverie and increased ability to visualize as in "awake dreaming," often found in low frequency alpha and theta brain activity, is a valuable tool for psychotherapists who use these experiences with their clients.
Gellhorn and Kiely (Miller and others, 1973:488) believe that there are similarities between yoga meditation and REM sleep. They resemble hypnosis in the suspension of will, in cortical arousal combined with trophotropic relaxation in the muscles. There is also vivid perceptual imagery and the loss of the sense of time and space. Stoyva (Miller and others 1973:492) also reports that hypnagogic imagery associated with 4-7 hertz theta rhythm is of a similar nature, and associated with muscle relaxation. Green, Green and Walters (1970) associate this hypnagogic revery state with creativity. The common element here seems to be an opening of the conscious mind to the preconscious, and biofeedback appears to be a viable method of making this happen.
Section III of the 1972 Aldine Annual on biofeedback (Shapiro and others 1972:145-191) is devoted to the development of consciousness and creativity through biofeedback methods, containing articles by Budzynski on twilight states, Green on healing and creativity enhancement through alpha, and Nideffer on alpha and the development of human potential. Again, the testimony of this research is to the mutual relationship of these various processes.
It appears to us that the claims of alpha wave biofeedback to facilitate the mastery of meditation through operant conditioning techniques is an assertion which needs to be examined very seriously. After all, alpha wave training is a technique which may be used with any meditational approach. In this day of instant everything, it may even
(page 319)
be possible to speed up the process of self-actualization by such a means. At least the contingency deserves a careful exploration. From what has been said previously, it is obvious that the facilitation of the alpha state may not only bring one to the terminal of the "great computer," but that it will promote increased concentration, learning, and recall on the cognitive side, and pleasure and relaxation on the affective. There is not space here in this discussion on meditation to document these possibilities more fully, but there are good grounds for such speculation. We should not conclude, however, without at least one paragraph devoted to the relation between biofeedback and creativity.
4.43 Alpha and Creativity
There is perhaps some correlation between alpha-theta output and creativity. A state of reverie which is described by Green, Green, and Walters (1970) as a state of inward-turned abstract attention or internal scanning may be related to theta and low-frequency alpha. In this state there seems to be an increase of hypnagogic and dream-like images, pictures or words which must seem to spring into the mind. Many creative people such as writer Aldous Huxley, mathematician Poincare, and poet A. E. Housman, report that it is through a reverie state that their creative inspirations have come. Some researchers believe that creative persons have stumbled upon and then developed to a high degree the ability to visualize in the area in which they are creative.
Hard evidence on the relation of alpha generation to enhanced openness including creativity, ESP, and so forth, is not available. Honorton and Carbone (1971) failed to find a significant relationship between alpha generation and ESP. Lewis and Schmedler (1971) did find some relationship between high alpha and ESP, but they suggest that the relationship is not simple, and that each variable interacts with other factors. Engstrom and others (1970) in an experiment attempting the establishment of a relationship between EEG feedback training and hypnotic susceptibility concluded that alpha and hypnotic susceptibility are similar subjective states. This area would profit by more definitive research.
It is possible that both the euphoria and the alpha waves are mere epiphenomena indicating that the subject is in an altered state of consciousness which is particularly conducive to terminal access to the collective computer, and hence to telepathy, healing, precognition, and the rest of the psychic powers. Watson (1973:257) suspects that the connection between telepathy and the alpha rhythm is crucial, and cites the Russian experiments of Popov which indicated that
(page 320)
each time telepathy occurred, alpha rhythms were found. He concludes (1973:256): "It seems certain that both telepathy and psychokinesis occur only under certain psychological conditions and that these are the ones marked by the production of brain waves of a particular frequency." The theta rhythm seems to be the physiological correlate of psychokinesis, and the alpha rhythm does the same for telepathy.
In concluding the proper place of alpha wave biofeedback in the continuum of this chapter, one is struck by the fact that the symptoms of the state are much more cognitive than otherwise, and that it tends to resemble more that of meditation than it does that of dissociation. All evidence of the earlier suggestibility of the trance state has been lost, except the "passivity," and far from there being an excursion of the ego, it is obviously present, and functioning. In these characteristics the alpha state can hardly be said to represent a type of developmental forcing, and perhaps the worst that can be said of it is that it is a technique in search of a rationale. Indeed, the evidence from research in this section is so persuasive that it suggests that the presence of alpha might be regarded as the boundary marker between the dissociative trance of developmental forcing, and the more positive states of creativity and psychedelia.
4.5 ORTHOCOGNITION (Jhana -3)
4.51 General Principles
If creativity is the intuitive level of syntaxic conceptualization of the junction between the ego and the numinous element, the first dawning of complete cognitive understanding we have called orthocognition. Orthocognition is the understanding of the principles enunciated in sections 4.1 on the collective preconscious and the "three illusions" especially those concerning the relationship between the individual ego and the numinous element, and their acceptance as a working hypothesis. Orthocognition is much like Maslow's B-cognition. It is a map of the psychic terrain, and an awareness that such relationships exist. It is the first step in the conscious control of the generalized preconscious. The word is compounded from "ortho" (correct) and cognition (in the Guilford sense) "to know that something exists."
Orthocognition involves the realization and visualization that numinous relationships exist. In other words, orthocognition is like having a correct map of the territory you are traversing in your mind; both would be helpful in not getting lost. While we have coined the word for use mainly with the great and overwhelming relationship between
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man's conscious ego and the numinous element, orthocognition in a smaller sense extends to any construct more useful than the one it replaces. Thus, the Copernician theory represents an advance of orthocognition over the Ptolemaic, Mendeleev's Periodic table an advance of orthocognition over the Four Elements theory, and the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court has many orthocognitive insights over his superstition-ridden friends.
The mere knowledge that something exists, and the correct visualization of one's relationship to it, does much to remove superstitions and fear, and to put one on the right track in thinking.
Orthocognition is no more than this, - a first step in the syntaxic realm. Orthocognition has two aspects: a) knowledge that the numinous element exists, and b) visualization of our relationship to it, and the consequences thereof. Knowledge that the numinous element exists may be expressed in the following hypothesis. It appears to us as:
1. An all-powerful, impersonal, immaterial force without characteristics or form and without will;
2. Existing outside of time and space, but available to us as a suggestible medium in a hierarchy of altered states of consciousness;
3. Having responsibility for the welfare and survival of all life generally, and specifically for the development and self-concept of man;
4. Receptive to cognitive will, as is a computer terminal when the proper order is encoded, and executing that will in a machine-like impersonal, uncognized, and sometimes unexpected manner, quickly, accurately, impartially, inexorably, appropriately, elegantly, and completely.
This is essentially the doctrine of the Perennial Philosophy which Happold (1970:20) summarizes as follows:
1. The phenomenological world is only a partial reality.
2. Man's nature is such that he can intuit the noumenon.
3. He can therefore develop and eventually identify with Divinity.
4. This process is the chief end of man's life.
Let us imagine that a man has been knocked unconscious and then thrown into a dark dungeon so that when he comes to he is in utter blackness. His successive levels of awareness will provide an analogy to our own developing orthocognition of ultimate reality.
At level zero the man is not conscious.
At level one he is barely conscious and does not know where he is.
At level two he is conscious of being somewhere in an enclosed space, but because of his concussion he does not have memory of whence he came.
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At level three he has explored his enclosed space and concluded that he is a prisoner within it; moreover he begins to remember that he was once outside.
Finally at level four, he recognizes the fact of his present condition, namely that he is a prisoner in a dungeon whose doors and dimensions he knows. He now remembers fully what freedom is like outside, and is beginning to formulate plans to escape.
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Orthocognition follows closely upon recognition of the illusory aspects of time, space, and personality. If the reader will refer to the section on the Three Illusions (4.13) he will see that orthocognition follows as a matter of course from this premise.
Knowledge is power, and orthocognitive knowledge of the relationship between the conscious mind and the numinous element leads at once to power. This power must (like all tools) be used carefully and wisely. Basically the power involves the orthocognitive recognition of our relationship to the numinous element, and our visualization of this relationship as "accomplish" (we use the untensed verb form to impress in the reader's mind that this action "take" place outside of time). Since the action "lie" outside of time in the "durative topocosm" (an infinity of potential events), our visualization of it as having occurred, occurring, and being about to occur provides the nourishment to make the seed idea germinate and manifest in the physical world of space/time. (Notice how similar is the action of the Hopi Indian in the rain dance, when he performs a similar enactive representation to make manifest a hoped-for-future event which is within his heart.)
The application of our relationship to the numinous element, and the consequences thereof, may be visualized in strengthening self-concept in seven vital areas:
1. my body and physical health
2. my wealth and possessions
3. my loved ones
4. my work and avocation
5. my interests, associations, and social relationships
6. my creations, my gifts to the society
7. my state, nation, culture, and world, especially regarding peace and prosperity.
Each of these areas represents an expansion of self-concept away from egocentricity in the direction of freedom and altruism. Together they cover the totality of self-concept which in turn (since it represents the ego's view of itself) is directly enriched and nourished by the
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numinous element. Hence, as a consequence of our relationship to this impersonal element, we should endeavor each day to visualize whatever aspect of self-concept we want to actualize as already existing now in an ideal state, and needing only our desire and will to become manifest. In other words, this part of orthocognition aids us to bring about the necessary environmental conditions for growth.
Let us be honest enough to admit that orthocognition is a low form of syntaxic conceptualization, for it is tinged with personal and selfish will. This constitutes a danger, especially that we shall be responsible for willing some event which indirectly causes trouble to ourselves or our neighbor. (No responsible person would ever be guilty of directly willing such an event.) We should endeavor to purify our minds from selfish purpose, before such an attempt and ever try to ascend the self-concept scale in visualizing as many concrete conditions at the high end as at the low end. Such scruples also suggest that orthocognition is best practiced along with meditation, which may be much more effective in removing the selfish ego. It is important to realize, however, that orthocognition is distinct from meditation, and that it has a legitimate function of promoting positive reinforcement for our continuing this growth. The laborer in the vineyard has a right to his pay, and we have a right as we progress to be protected and made comfortable in our daily lives (though we must not allow comfort to degenerate into sloth).
While the creative aspects of the mind (which indicate it is part of the noumenon) embrace all nature, the relative ease with which the power to affect the environment may be exercised, is expressed in a hierarchy of self concept going outward from the body image through the phenomenal and environmental selves to successively embrace "my body, my possessions, my relations with my loved ones, my work, my interests, my relations, my creations and my world." The easiest of these to affect and to change is of course, "my self-concept," then come events, things, and finally other persons, society, and the universe.
It is important that we understand the uses and limitations of orthocognition. As one of the initial forms of syntaxic representation of the numinous element, it represents a way station to aid in our developmental progress, not a form to be cherished forever. Specifically it has the disadvantage of looking at the universe in terms of the welfare of the personal ego or self-concept and of the modification of that environment for the benefit of the personal ego. Since the concept of the personal ego is itself an illusion, one may well ask what if any benefits are gained by compounding an illusory process. The interim benefits are that the self-concept develops through
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orthocognition from a lesser "my" to a greater "my" (as in going along the hierarchy from "my body" to "my world"). This gradual movement from egocentricity to freedom is truly developmental and encourages ego-diffusion; it also has the advantage of helping the ego to feel secure during such an operation; the reduction of anxiety is a helpful step in such a progression. The danger is the usual one in developmental progress, namely that any one stage may prove so tempting that one willingly remains there instead of pushing on. If there be two roads to reality, one through the desert of self-denial and mortification and the other in a milk-and-honey land of delight, the austere path offers less temptation to dally than the comfortable one. The stages of self-concept interest in orthocognition are stages to be gradually surmounted, for every "my" that ties the ego to ownership or association delays development. The wise man, therefore, will realize orthocognition for what it is, an interim device, particularly suitable for us westerners for the gradual transcendence of self-concept by applying it more and more to the environmental self, and less and less to the personal self.
The power of orthocognition is akin to the power of the dreamer in the lucid dream. Both help us become aware that we are dreaming and that the dream world we inhabit in the daytime is not more real than the dream world we inhabit asleep. Since both are dreams, we may expect that mental causes may change the percepts we "see" awake just as they change the dream percepts. It is this awareness that the perceptual world is not "loose and separate," but a product of collective consciousness and hence, changeable by mental means that is the freeing orthocognitive construct.
We have discussed orthocognition as if it were always a deliberate and conscious attempt at control of the environment through visualization in the syntaxic mode, but we must note for completeness that there are many instances of such visualizations in other modes in which, without realizing that he is doing so, the individual sets in motion the same kind of archetype or mental picture which eventuates in a manifest material state or event.
For the human mind is not merely endowed (as part of the noumenon) with the power to cognize nature, it is also endowed with the power to design nature. The end objective of consciousness is not mere experience but reification. Whether we realize it or not, our thoughts affect the plastic numinous element which tends (unless prevented by other thoughts) to transform these thoughts into events. This is the secret of the self-fulfilling prophecy, for what a man can predict or visualize is (to use Koko's words) "As good as done already." As Pearce (1973:11) states: "Thinking is a shaping force in reality."
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Life is like being stunned then put into a strait jacket then dropped from a great height with a parachute. The problem is one first has to come to, then get out of the straitjacket, then activate the parachute. When consciousness is imprisoned in space, time, and personality, it is put into this position. Orthocognition is the first dawning of consciousness that it is in this fix (i.e. like the lucid dreamer that he is having a dream). Then the problem is to get out of the situation and not be beguiled by all of its allurements. Like Apollo, we are set in a great chariot for a swing through the heavens. But will consciousness reap the regard of this journey through space and time, or will there be only the usual Pussycat's report?
Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visitthe Queen.
Pussycat, pussycat what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse underherchair.
When consciousness is encased in creaturehood, it is very difficult not to be about the business of the creature. So after all the effort of going to London we may content ourselves with frightening a little mouse, rather than seeing the Queen.
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Blofeld (1970:84) calls orthocognition "visualization" and says of it:
It produces quick results by utilizing forces familiar to man only at the deeper levels of consciousness ... wherewith mind creates and animates the whole universe; ordinarily they are not ours to command, until the false ego is negated or unless we employ yogic means to transcend its bounds. . . .
Since orthocognition involves a realization that the ego rather than being the central aspect of life is something to be transcended, it requires a radical switch in thinking. This from I-thinking" to "not-I-thinking" is made more difficult by the construction of our grammar. But since we can also rise by that which appears to cause our fall, we can deal with this problem grammatically. We can express the triple integral of the ego mathematically by SSSI . We can hence use the shortened symbol SI to mean the transpersonal noumenon; so that when we say "I visualize," we are more accurate to say (or write) "SI visualize," since only SI is capable of bringing the visualization to manifestation. (see Table X, page 252)
It is sometimes loosely stated than an action taken in the body (orthocognition or a physical ritual, see section 3.5 last 5 paragraphs)
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activates a cosmic source, but this is an inaccurate rendition of the event. What happens is that the SI situation takes place outside of time (and hence eternally and recurrently in time), and the calling forth of the function outside of time hence projects the manifestation into time in the here and now and in the future. This process which transforms thought into action can be performed syntaxically through orthocognition by the SI procedure which works in the durative topocosm. It can also be accomplished parataxically through the ritual repetition of a formula which sets up a vibration or cycle. Both processes are like turning on a tap to release a flow of water. They do not produce the water which flows; they merely release it or bring it from posse into esse.
To program one's dreams and to program one's (dreaming awake) normal life are very similar functions. One involves creativity and the other healing; both are orthocognitive. For in both it is SI which brings design to an otherwise chaotic state.
The stages of consciousness in man go from essential animal consciousness (mere reaction to stimuli) to self-consciousness (normal formal operations and some insight) to orthocognition (with its understanding that SI is imprisoned in time, space, and personality). Finally there comes cosmic consciousness which is at first transient in the psychedelic stage and continual in the unitive.
Bruner (1962) is only one of many who have noticed that on logical grounds scientists postulate "empty categories" (like the Hamiltonian quarternions), and then science discovers contents for the category. Teilhard de Chardin pointed out that man's imagination is a creative process which carries on the universe, and Elaide (1959) sees man as free to intervene in the ontological constitution of the universe. Polanyi (1958) speaks of the "indwelled" idea which gestates in material progress. Despite these seers, most of us do not at all appreciate the power of the logos of cognitive syntaxic process in the creative process of the universe, although we have been told authoritatively, "In the beginning was the Word."
Since orthocognition is a form of mental dimensional orientation, it is related to the structure of intellect factor of spatial visualization. The ability to orient oneself in three dimensional space can be developed into the ability to orient oneself outside of space and time, and hence to possess the means for transcending the illusion they present. In the same manner as the lucid dreamer who knows that he is dreaming (and hence gains the capacity to will what he dreams), the person who is orthocognitively aware of his orientation toward ultimate reality also comes to possess the capacity to design his life (to will what he "dreams" awake). A curious corollary of this relationship of
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orthocognition to spatial visualization is that the next metaphysical Aufklarung is much more likely to come from scientists, engineers, and architects (all high in spatial relations) than from ministers, social workers, or physicians. The religious man of the future is much more likely to be in the mold of an Einstein or a Heisenberg than of the Pope or a Protestant equivalent.
Since orthocognition represents a correct view of man's relationship to the universe, or cognitive competence in advance of affective feeling, it is in effect an example of a "reverse dysplasia" (Gowan, 1974:168-70)in which the cognitive development leads the affective. These reverse dysplasias, while rare except in the able, offer an unusual opportunity for the cognitive area to "pull" emotional areas into balance with it. They also, in the case of orthocognition at least, "telegraph" the secret of psychedelia which in the past used to be revealed to mystics during an ecstatic grace. This is the meaning of the ending paragraph The Development of thePsychedelic Individual (Gowan, 1974:251) which indicates that the psychology now has the cognitive capacity to reveal what only mystics could sense affectively.
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral?
Magic has been defined as the use of universal powers for personal interest and it cannot be denied that orthocognition represents a syntaxic form of magic. Honesty, therefore, compels us to think very carefully whether or not it is a licit procedure. We confess candidly that no other issue in this volume has given us the concern that this one has. The issue is very grave, for if orthocognition is proscribed, then all forms of self-help including the therapies-ministries-religions of auto and mental suggestion, Christian Science, Religious Science, positive thinking, demonstration versus environment, prosperity metaphysics, Coueism, New Thought, hypnosis, Autogenic Training, autohypnosis, psychosynthesis, personality culture, and mesmerism are also illicit.25
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Having reviewed the arguments pro and con in detail, it is our feeling that orthocognition is within the modern view of man's increasing control over himself and his environment. The fission of the atom represents a powerful tool which can be used for good or evil; but no one would suggest that we erase this knowledge from our culture on that account. A similar statement could be made in behalf of orthocognition. If man continues to grow in knowledge, he must continue to grow in the discretion to use that power wisely.
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Under the restraints which have been set down in this section, we believe that orthocognition may be innocently employed.
In such a grave issue, we would do well to find more authoritative sources, which fortunately are at hand. Satrem (1968:274) points out that the saint Sri Aurobindo, far from rejecting power, (even though it may often be misused), on the contrary declared that the concept of power - Shakti - is the key to his yoga:
It is a mistake ... to condemn Power as in itself a thing not to be accepted or sought because naturally corrupting or evil. ... Power is divine, and put here for divine use.
4.53 Orthocognition Compared
While orthocognition represents a "new" syntaxic procedure, it is not that original. It bears unmistakable relationships to Coueism, Christian Science, New Thought, Religious Science, Positive Thinking, Autogenic Training, Psychosynthesis, and several other movements. In addition, however, there are some earlier views which have such striking similarities as to require special attention.
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The first exhibit is the thought of Thomas Troward (1909) which has been somewhat explicated in Chapter 1.
Troward (1909:85) believed that it was perfectly possible to program the preconscious (which he called "subjective mind") from a completely rational state of consciousness without need of dissociation or any altered state. Since he conceived the preconscious to be impersonal, and existing in a subjective hypnotic state, it had no desire of its own, and consequently it waited for us to make up its mind for it. He postulated that:
1. There is emotion in the conscious mind which gives rise to
2. Desire;
3. Judgement determines if we shall externalize this desire, if approved,
4. The will directs the imagination to form the necessary prototype;
5. The clutch of the conscious mind is allayed by sleep, hypnotism, satori, or some altered state of consciousness, during which the prototype is transferred from the individual to the general mind (from the personal to the impersonal) (from the conscious to the preconscious); the imagination thus centered now in the preconscious creates the mental (spiritual) nucleus;
6. This prototype in the preconscious is a fact of reality, and, hence,
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acts as a center around which the forces of attraction begins to work so that
7. An inward and spiritual fact becomes manifested in outward and perceptible form.
We conceive this process to take place much as a master print in xeroxing has its image transferred via a light beam to a succession of copies of which it is the prototype. The key aspect is the juncture of the conscious desire with the collective preconscious. While it is evident that such a juncture can more easily take place during an altered state of consciousness (such as a hypnopompic state), Troward seems to feel that it can also be affected, at least by some, in the ordinary state.
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Our second exhibit is an example of the magic of a primitive culture which has a number of similarities to orthocognition.
Max Freedman Long (Dane, 1974) after a long study of Hawaiian Kahuna magic beliefs determined that their system involved three souls for man:
a) the uhane, the spirit that talks (the left hemisphere) conscious mind
b) the unihipili, the "low" mind that does not talk, but makes pictures (the right hemisphere) or the unconscious
c) the aumakua, the parental spirit or spirit guardian (the preconscious -this is the God within man). The form of consciousness that performs the miracles: called by Hawaiians "the High Self."
The Huna belief is that the three spirits are encased by three shadowy bodies composed of a sticky substance called aka. Pranic energy is called mana; it is manufactured by the physical body and is under the control of the low self. It is sent to the higher selves by means of the silver cord which connects the etheric bodies (the aka). For healing much more mana is needed by the High Self and this is accumulated and sent to the High Self through breathing exercises. So for healing the Kahuna makes a mental picture of things as they should be and sends this picture with mana to the High Self. In Hawaiian the word for prayer is hou; this word also means to "pant or breathe heavily." The Hawaiians conceive the High Self to be both male and female and a quasi-sex union between these two aspects creates the new conditions which result in healing. Telepathy, according to the Kahunas, is made up of pictures sent by the low self to the high self. Hence, telepathy and prayer are very similar. It is very interesting that the Kahunas insist on this non-talking property
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of the low self in view of the fact that modern psychology has found out that the right hemisphere cannot talk, but is intelligent nevertheless and that it also may have paranormal abilities through the use of pictures and visualization.
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing
The principle of orthocognition, plus the two examples we have given of it lends itself immediately to the application of healing. One might have said "psychic healing" indicating that healing is a kind of siddhi (see section 4.154), but it is becoming abundantly evident that healing is something natural and a power possessed by almost everyone. The differences between the everyday aspects of healing, and the esoteric aspects of levitation, for example, are so great as to require separate consideration, in this section, apart from the rarer siddhis which appear to require some kind of ASC. For healing does not appear to require an ASC. It does require orthocognition, and it seems to be some kind of twin to creativity.
The relationship between this transcendental union of the individual and general minds, and psychic healing, is beautifully stated by Green et al. (1971b):
As a final word, it seems increasingly certain that healing and creativity are different pieces of a single picture. Both Swami Rama and Jack Schwarz, a Western Sufi whom we recently had a chance to work with, maintain that self healing can be performed in a state of deep reverie. Images for giving the body instructions are manipulated in a manner very similar to that used by Assagioli for personality and transpersonal integration, as in his Psychosynthesis. But this "manner" of manipulation of images is also the same as that in which we find ideas being handled creatively (by two pilot subjects) for the solution of intellectual problems. What an interesting finding! Creativity in terms of physiological processes means then physical healing, physical regeneration. Creativity in emotional terms consists then of establishing, or creating, attitude changes through the practice of healthful emotions, that is, emotions whose neural correlates are those that establish harmony in the visceral brain, or to put it another way, emotions that establish in the visceral brain those neurological patterns whose reflection in the viscera is one that physicians approve of as stress resistant. Creativity in the mental domain involves the emergency of a new and valid synthesis of ideas, not by deduction, but springing by "intuition" from unconscious sources.
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The entrance, or key, to all these inner processes we are beginning to believe, is a particular state of consciousness to which we have given the undifferentiated name "reverie." This reverie can be approached by means of theta brainwave training in which the gap between conscious and unconscious processes is voluntarily narrowed, and temporarily eliminated when useful. When that self-regulated reverie is established, the body can apparently be programmed at will and the instructions given will be carried out, emotional states can be dispassionately examined, accepted or rejected, or totally supplanted by others deemed more useful, and problems insoluable in the normal state of consciousness can be elegantly resolved.
Perhaps now, because of the resurgence of interest in self exploration and in self realization, it will be possible to develop a synthesis of old and new, East and West, prescience and science, using both yoga and biofeedback training as tools for the study of consciousness. It is also interesting to hypothesize that useful parapsychological talents can perhaps be developed by use of these reverie-generating processes of yoga and biofeedback. Much remains to be researched, and tried in application, but there is little doubt that in the lives of many people a penetration of consciousness into previously unconscious realms (of mind and brain) is making understandable and functional much that was previously obscure and inoperable.
It is also interesting to recollect that there seem to be three kinds of healers:
(a) those whose healing power is emitted through the hands,26 prototaxically
(b) those whose healing power depends upon images formed in the right high hemisphere (such as the "low mind" of the kahunas) in which there is a parataxic level of effect; and
(c) those whose healing power is operated syntaxically, through the word (Jesus: "Stretch forth thy hand," Luke, 6:10).
We do not include acupuncture as an aspect of psychic healing because it appears to us to be another school of medicine which deals with the adjustment of energies in the etheric body via the chakra centers. That this operation depends upon a body of knowledge and belief which is not compatible with western medicine as presently practiced is not perjorative in our view; it simply says something about Western thought in general, which is that whether religious, nationalistic, or scientific, it is insufferably arrogant. There is little to choose between the Catholic dictum that it is the only true religion;
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the British Empire view that it is the only true state, and the view of modern medicine that it is the only true prophylactic. Thus, despite the availability of a good deal of research evidence to the validity of acupuncture, we shall not examine it, as outside the scope of this investigation.
It is suggestive and interesting that in addition to the ancient tradition of spiritual healing within the Christian Church (such as "laying on of hands,") and its modern emphasis (in such religions as Christian and Religious Science), there should be at the present time, such a tremendous interest in psychic healing particularly by those in the more "respectable" sciences. Thus in a convention sponsored by the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine (Tiller, 1972) one finds twelve of fourteen speakers with their doctorates. The work done in this area by the Greens of the Menninger Clinic, Professor Tiller of Stanford, Sister M. J. Smith, the biologist, Thelma Moss, the UCLA Kirlian photographer, and A. Puharich is well known and testifies to the academic prestige of the researchers. The literature in this area alone is so voluminous and so recent, that we cannot hope to notice it systematically, but is has progressed from a mere examination and cataloguing of effects to the development of theory, some of which promises to open the doors of our perception.
Let us particularly note that while orthocognitive healing has some similarities to the prototaxic healing enjoyed in trance "heat" and in shamanistic phenomena, it is very much different in the fact that it is accomplished in a normal state of consciousness, and seems indeed, to be more like the intuitive relationship with the preconscious which characterizes creative openness than it does even with the higher forms of ecstasy which we shall later note.
As we noted in section 4.154, the essence of psychic healing is a speed-up in time of what would normally be accomplished in a much longer period. What we are really witnessing, therefore, is the acceleration of chemical reactions. If ultimate reality exists outside of time, and if orthocognition is the dawning recognition of this fact, the consequent psychic healing as an accelerated physical process would follow immediately upon this principle.
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana -2)
4.61 General Information
Meditation represents the last procedure and the highest level of the creative stage. Unlike all other procedures, it involves a conscious effort to open the doors to the preconscious, through clearing and
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tranquilizing the conscious mind. Meditation is not prayer, for it does not involve importuning an external Deity. As Christian Humphreys (1968:6) remarks: "At best the method of prayer is a yearning of the heart; meditation, on the other hand, reorients the mind. . . . "
The basic principle involved in the use of meditation as an enhancement to self-awareness and as a stimulation to growth is its syntaxic contact with the numinous element; this contact involves:
(1) the manifestation of the numinous in a positive and controlled form,
(2) the "entasy"27 (or full normal consciousness) of the ego, which results in the benefit of learning from the experience, and
(3) the tranquilization of the cogitative aspects of the mind, so that one gradually becomes conscious of its "openness" rather than its "connectedness", and of ideas flowing into it, rather than ideas being churned up by it.
Meditation sets one consciously on the path of yoga, or union with the numinous, but since meditation is a transitional procedure between the creative and the psychedelic stage, the motivations of the person embarking upon it experience subtle and often rapid changes. The Indian saint Sri Aurobindo understood this yogic development well. Satprem (1968:34) quotes Sri Aurobindo as follows:
One may start a process of one kind or another for the purpose which would normally mean a long labor, and be seized, even at the outset, by a rapid intervention of manifestation of Silence with an effect all out of proportion to the means used at the beginning. One commences with a method but the work is taken up by a Grace from above. . .
Satprem (Ibid.) continues:
... yoga awakens automatically ... a whole gamut of latent faculties ... which can do for us that of which we are normally incapable. (Quoting Sri Aurobindo) "One has to have the passage clear between the outer mind and something in the inner being ... for ... the yogic consciousness and its powers are already there within you," and the best way of clearing is to make the mind silent. We do not know who we are and still less what we are capable of.
Satprem (1968:35-6) points out that meditation is only the beginning of the psychedelic life:
But the practice of meditation is not the true solution of the problem (though it be quite necessary at the beginning to give the push) because we shall attain perhaps a relative silence, but
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at the very moment we put our foot outside our room or our retreat we shall fall back. . . .
The extra need is for "a complete life" so that we can practice silence "in the street," and become "oriented."
While there are many specific techniques of meditation, they all appear to have some common elements. The key factors facilitating meditation appear to be:
1) relaxing the body, and rendering the mind insensible to it by:
a) sitting upright in a relaxed posture,
b) shutting the eyes,
c) being undisturbed in a quiet, shuttered room,
d) controlling the breath so that one breathes more slowly and shallowly;
2) relaxing the mind, and bringing it to an altered state of consciousness by:
a) use of a mantra (or repetition of the same words, sound or tone),
b) exclusion of distracting thoughts from the mind,
c) developing a simple "awareness" without being consciously attracted to any particular idea or wish.
The aim is a "relaxed awareness," but in the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one should perform meditation "without expectation of any results," not in the anticipation of a psychedelic experience. Or as another teacher has put it, "we don't evaluate the results of meditation by our subjective experience, but in the happiness and efficiency of our lives." The benefits of meditation are stressed as relaxation and rest, rather than as an indubitable pathway to the nature-mystic-peak experience, (although such experiences may occur). Aldous Huxley (1945:283) talks about a very similar technique of the Christian mystics in which prayer begins with mental concentration on Christ's passion, and then passes from it to the formless substratum. He notes a similar experience from the Tibetian Book of the Dead:
Whosoever thy tutelary deity may be, meditate upon the form for much time - as being apparent, yet non-existent in reality, like a form produced by a magician.. . Then let the visualization of the tutelary deity melt away from the extremities, till nothing at all remaineth visible of it; and put thyself in the state of the Clearness and the Voidness - which thou canst not conceive as something - and abide in that state for a little while. Again meditate upon the tutelary deity; again meditate upon the Clear Light; do this alternately. Afterwards allow thine own intellect to melt away gradually, beginning from the extremities.
Huxley (1945:290) also quotes Ashvaghosha on the Way of Tranquillity as follows:
Those who are practising 'stopping' should retire to some quiet
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place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek to tranquillize and concentrate the mind. While one may at first think of one's breathing, it is not wise to continue this practice very long, nor to let the mind rest on any particular appearances, or sights, or conceptions, arising from the senses.
All kinds of ideation are to be discarded as fast as they arise; even the notions of controlling and discarding are to be got rid of. One's mind should become like a mirror, reflecting things, but not judging them or retaining them. Conceptions of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Conceptions arising from the senses and lower mind will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. The same is true of conditions outside the mind; they should not be allowed to engross one's attention and so to hinder one's practice. The mind cannot be absolutely vacant, and as the thoughts arising from the senses and the lower mind are discarded and ignored, one must supply their place by right mentation. The question then arises: what is right mentation? The reply is: right mentation is the realization of mind itself, of its pure undifferentiated Essence. When the mind is fixed on its pure Essence, there should be no lingering notions of the self, even of the self in the act of realizing, nor of realization as a phenomenon. . . .
A number of mechanical devices have been used to secure a "free-floating" state which is conscious but passive, and which gives attention inward to thought processes as they form in the mind, and attempts to go beyond them into pure consciousness. This requires narrowing the attention, restricting sensory input, and cutting down on the inpouring of random stream of consciousness ideas. Techniques used to bring about this state may involve chanting, giving attention to one's breathing, gazing into a mandala (sacred picture), mentally repeating a mantra, concentrating on a koan, or other similar process all designed to fix and tranquilize the attention.
Some systems such as Zen are rather prescriptive about methods used to induce what Christian mystics would call their "Prayer of Quiet," while others, such as Transcendental Meditation are quite permissive. Such differences suit different temperaments, and all may be useful under various circumstances. Some such as hatha yoga and Nichiren Shoshu are mainly somatic, while others, such as raja yoga are mainly cerebral. But all of these methods attempt to deal with quieting the constant inrush of distracting thoughts and percepts
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which appear to sustain the normal state of consciousness, and without which it lapses into sleep, or another ASC.
There seem to be two levels to meditation which blend into one another. In the lower level, meditation is an effort to avoid distractions such as the stream-of-consciousness babble. The slightest external noise disrupts; as John Donne (1626) said:
I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call and invite God and his angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, or the whining of a door.
In the higher level, these distractions cease; meditation is a joy, and "the Prayer of Quiet," (jhana-1), is reached. Meditation hence becomes the bridge between the creative and the psychedelic stages.
Barbara Brown (1974) believes that while alpha biofeedback is not necessary for the advanced meditator, it may be useful for the beginner, in helping him to track onto alpha (which of course prevents distractions). Nideffer (Shapiro and others 1972:167-185) in a comprehensive review of alpha and the development of human potential including meditation, agrees with Brown, and concludes that biofeedback may have an important future in "maximizing psychological functioning" at all levels of the creative stage. Green of the Menninger clinic (ibid:152ff) finds biofeedback useful in both healing and creativity after a series of experiments. The net effect of all this testimony is that biofeedback is a helpful procedure for advancement in the syntaxic mode, useful for establishing both creativity and meditation.
For the purpose of advancement in the syntaxic mode, Progoff (1968) advocates the keeping of what he calls an "intensive journal." It is a psychological notebook, designed "to help achieve an experience crucial in the process of personal growth", namely the initiation of an "enlargement of consciousness." This process helps the individual to reach "a direct contact with the creative principle which is at the core of life." Besides the daily log there are meditational and orthocognitive experiences designed both to accomplish therapeutic "unstressing" and positive growth toward self- actualizing behavior. Progoff counsels that the intensive journal should be used in concert with group workshops, etc.
Constituted as structure for the growth process, the intensive journal is a directed log of areas where the individual is to write daily. The areas are as follows:
1. Describe the characteristics of the most recent period of your life including emotions, dreams, unusual events, feelings.
2. Same analysis of the present day.
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3. Personal sections to include dialogue with people, dialogue with books and other works, group experiences, dialogue with events, dialogue with the body.
4. Depth contact (ways of gaining access to one's personal potentials): dreams, dream enlargements, hypnagogic imagery and fantasy, extensions of same, inner dialogues;
5. Life history log or rememberings and recapitulations: stepping stones, intersections, Now (and the Future). As one keeps reevaluating the choice points (stepping stones) one finds that they move from the exterior events to inner events, and change markedly in a process of expansion.28
Meditation can be considered as a take-off point beyond ortho-cognition because it readies the individual for the cognitive experience of altered states of awareness or consciousness.
Meditation allows the person, through contemplative self awareness or "going within" to more directly experience his higher self nature. Awareness of the numinous element is enhanced during the meditative process. And the relationship of the higher self to the numinous element is further realized, where the paradox of subject and object can later be transcended in a unity of "being." 29
In considering the following forms of meditation it should also be realized that, in some of them, this process of continued experience of higher levels of consciousness is the only means of true self realization. It is considered to be the means of transcending the illusion of separateness at ordinary states of consciousness, experiencing the inner reality of higher self and moving upward to essence and unity of "being." We return again to the merging of higher self and the numinous element beyond time, space and personality, to a full cognition of the all by the all-the unity of Atman and Brahman, the attainment of Buddha nature.
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu29
Nichiren Shoshu is a sect of Buddhist philosophy based upon an interpretation of the Lotus Sutras. The process of meditation in Nichiren Shoshu is practiced by the individual alone or in group meetings, or both. The recommended length of time according to its practitioners is two hours per day.
Meditation begins with a ceremonial practice of candle lighting, then chanting to the Gohonzon is begun. The Gohonzon is considered to have been divinely inspired when it was written and endowed with great power. This power can be brought into effect for the benefit of the chanter through faith and continued chanting. It is claimed that the laws of cause and effect which operate at all levels of existence
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are brought into play through chanting. Even though the words chanted repeatedly are in Japanese and are not cognitively understood, it is felt that because they are in tune with a universal energy force and are used in conjunction with belief in the Gohonzon that the results will be beneficial.
In terms of human growth, the philosophy is that chanting will awaken the higher self nature in man, regardless of his initial intent in chanting, and that he will improve as a person to higher levels of self awareness and cognitive growth. It is also stressed that the individual will be happy due to receiving benefits from chanting, and that world peace can be achieved through expanded individual happiness.
Even though discipline through regular practice of chanting is stressed, there is no emphasis upon a guru for each student nor upon asceticism of any kind. In fact just the opposite is true, for the stress is on joy and happiness attained through the receipts of benefits from chanting. Nichiren Shoshu appeals on the average to a younger group of followers than one might find in Zen or Vedanta for example. This may be due to the fact that the positive feelings connected with the solidarity of the organization, and the athletic strivings for world peace, help provide a channel for the outlet of energy and the need for belonging characteristic of adolescents. It may also provide a reinforcement of positive identity for those who have not yet internalized the identity issue at the higher level of self.
Compared with other forms of meditation, Nichiren Shoshu appears to resemble the syntaxic procedure of orthocognition. There is more emphasis on a kind of visualization of positive conditions, surrounding and affecting self-concept. This action is understandable for adolescents who at the time of the identity crisis are not perhaps ready for the higher psychedelic states of consciousness. Like other forms of meditation, then, Nichiren Shoshu is a preparation for mystic experience. The beneficial effects of chanting as facilitating "unstressing" (section 2.23) should not be minimized.
4.63 Transcendental Meditation
"Transcendental Meditation is a systematic procedure of turning the attention inward toward the subtler levels of thought until the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of thought and arrives at the source of the thought." "TM is a purely mental technique practiced individually every morning and evening for fifteen to twenty minutes at a sitting. It requires no alteration of life style, diet, etc. and as a technique of direct experience rather than a religion or philosophy, it does not require belief in the efficacy of the practice
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nor an understanding of the underlying theory. Wallace and others (1971) have characterized it as a "wakeful hypometabolic physiologic state," i.e., a state of restful alertness. TM is apparently a universal human faculty, not requiring any particular intellectual or cognitive facility other than the ordinary ability to think. It is easily learned by anyone in about six hours of instruction, spread out over four consecutive days from a Maharishi-trained teacher. Once learned, it can be continued without the necessity for additional instruction.*
Another "American" aspect of the packaging of Transcendental Meditation is the great interest its exponents have shown in psychological research and evaluation. Seldom, if ever, has a "cult" shown such concern about scientific accountability. Despite its recent introduction, the continued practice of transcendental meditation has been shown to:
1. reduce anxiety (Wallace 1970, Doucette, 1972)
2. improve learning (Abrams, 1972, Shaw and Kolb, 1970)
3. improve accuracy of percepts (Blasdell, 1971)
4. increase energy and reduce need for sleep (Wallace, 1970)
5. increase mental health (Fehr, 1972) (Goleman, 1971) (Seeman, 1972), (Kanellakos, et al., 1972)
6. reduce blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen intake (Allison, 1970), Wallace, et al., 1971), (Wallace, et al.,1972)
7. reduce drug-abuse dependence (Benson, 1969, 1970), (Williams, 1972), (Winquist, 1969)
8. decrease hostility (Bose and Berger, 1972)
9. increase alpha wave production (Brown, et al., 1972).
But TM has been packaged for American tastes in more subtle ways. One of its dictates is that practitioners should not meditate more than fifteen to twenty minutes twice per day, and the occasional longer meditations should be undertaken only under supervision.
The practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) is an outgrowth of Hindu tradition, developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from the teachings of guru Dev under whom he studied for many years. The practice itself begins with the training of each participant. It is not required that the individual conform to strict disciplinary rules in terms of alteration of life style, nor is there an emphasis on asceticism involved. The instructor is a trained teacher who studied under the guidance of the Maharishi himself, but contrary to more formal Hindu teaching such as Vedanta, the student gradually lessens contact with the teacher as he becomes more proficient in the practice.
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*This paragraph consists of a series of quotes from Levine, P., 1972. The first sentence is quoted from Maharishi, 1969.
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The training involves the presentation of a mantra or meaningless sound to the student which is only described as a vehicle that allows meditation to take place. The next step in the training is described "sitting upright in a chair with eyes closed, the student listens to his mantra as it is chanted by his teacher, and then takes it up himself - first aloud, and then silently.... Meditators appear for all practical purposes to be asleep. Yet they say their minds remain acutely aware of outside stimuli. . . . "
After the initial four lessons the student practices the meditation on his own on a twice daily basis for 15-20 minutes per session. The state arrived at during this process has been described as a wakeful hypo-metabolic physiologic state in which the nervous system naturally goes about normalizing the existing tensions and discords, biochemical and physiologic abnormalities. With the regular practice of this restful psychophysiologic experience the spontaneous occurring result is improved physiologic functioning, increased psychophysiologic stability, and improved psychological integration.
The studies are too numerous to go into detail here, but for further references one is directed to: "The Psychobiology of Transcendental Meditation: A Literature Review," Kanellakos and Zukas (1973). Briefly however, in terms of physiological changes, the Stanford Research Institute Review stated: "The physiological correlates of TM - and some of the meditational states reached by other techniques - appear to define a lowered metabolic state characterized by decreased autonomic activity, decreased emotional and sensory reactivity, decreased muscle tension, and a wakeful, alert brain."
Despite the fact that there is an initiation fee for TM, (the money goes to support the organization's research, educational, and recruiting operations), the movement has been very successful both in the United States and abroad. Various world centers, including the Maharishi International University (at the site of former Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa) have been set up. Practitioners are supposed to number over 500,000 in the U.S. alone.
Because of its interest in research, its non-insistence on a creed, and its adaptation to American life styles, it seems of all forms of meditation, perhaps the easiest for most Westerners to pursue.
4.64 Psychocatalysis: The Foundation of Human Understanding29
The Foundation of Human Understanding was founded by Roy Masters, who is still its president and most authoritative, outspoken proponent of the meditation exercise and underlying philosophy.
Masters developed the meditation exercise in the early 1960's and is the sole official instructor of the technique which is presented
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to the student on a set of records along with an accompanying book entitled "How Your Mind Can Keep You Well." In each of these the student is guided through the meditation practice, and at the same time presented with the underlying philosophy espoused by the organization. Some individuals who have practiced the technique for several years have criticized the practice of presenting beliefs to the student during meditation. They claim that it runs contradictory to the purpose of meditation itself to install beliefs externally during meditation. Some have even claimed that it borders on an hypnotic process. Masters has defended this procedure claiming that he is only reinforcing deeper truths regarding dynamics of human behavior and that the individual is in a state of conscious awareness and not in an hypnotic trance.
The meditation process, which is performed by the individual alone after several beginning sessions with the record, is practiced twice daily for approximately 15minutes per session.
In very basic terms it involves sitting or lying quietly and centering the concentration on the center of the forehead. Contrary to the process of TM, however, in this form of meditation the object is not to still the mind through the imposition of a mantra. Instead, the individual is to observe his thought without being caught up in thought or holding on to a particular idea.
Masters (1971) calls this technique "Psychocatalysis" and describes it as a combination of "some of the concentration techniques of ancient Yoga with the sound logic of Judeo-Christian principles." He sees the process of the meditation exercise as a "Subjection of mind, feeling, and body, to the dictates of inner reality; the technique by which the consciousness is 'raised' to the level of observation."
4.65 Arica 29
The Arica Institute was founded in 1970 by Oscar Ichazo, a South American who has combined the diverse areas of religion, esoteric mysticism, and psychology. Through years of experience he developed a holistic approach to human development based upon the elimination of barriers to positive states of consciousness. These barriers to higher levels of consciousness, according to Ichazo (Keen, 1973), are the result of ego-dominated thought which he feels prevents transcendence to the realization of higher self nature (or as he calls it 'essence') and accompanying cognitive growth.
The eclectic techniques he has developed deal with three basic areas which he considers extensions of this ego-dominated thought. These areas are body, emotion, and intellect.
A detailed analysis of the techniques used to eliminate barriers
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in each of these three areas would be too lengthy and complex to be included here. But generally they include:
1) exercises based upon Hatha Yoga and Aikido for the purpose of overcoming "body ego" and reaching the Kath or spontaneous flowing of movement,
2) exercises designed to attain a "biological understanding of objective virtue" (Keen, 1973)leading to a harmonious emotional life and
3) meditation and chanting exercises designed to eliminate the barrier of intellect and transcend it to higher levels of consciousness where there can be a syntaxic communicating of deeper meanings of inner reality.
This last area of meditation and chanting is of particular interest here since its purpose is the experience of higher levels of consciousness in a syntaxic manner. And while Ichazo emphasizes the destructive aspect of ego more than is the case with the previous forms of meditation (with the exception of psychocatalysis) the similarity lies in the emphasis on higher levels of consciousness toward the level of the nature mystic experience and beyond. In fact Ichazo has numbered various "states of consciousness," adapting it from the Gurdjieff chart of vibration levels, which is organized in ascending and descending order from the highest positive level to the lowest negative level. A description of each level is given by Lilly (1972) (p. 148) in relationship to both the Gurdjieff levels and those of Hindu philosophy.
These levels of consciousness are experienced by nearly everyone at sometime, but it is the ability to map and integrate these experiences in the syntaxic mode of communicating deeper meaning that produced growth at the cognitive level. And in terms of its interdependent relationship with affective development, increasingly profound understanding of inner reality must take place along with ego transcendence to a higher self realization and reorganization of identity in that respect.
4.66 Zen29
Zen is another branch of Buddhism and consists of several schools emphasizing different areas of practice. In terms of Buddhist philosophy, it is interesting to compare the extreme difference in emphasis and practice between Nichiren Shoshu and Zen. In the former there is no emphasis on initial intent, need for a guru, or hard work and a strictly disciplined life style to achieve the goal of understanding the self and attaining Buddahood. In Zen the emphasis is indeed on these things. In Nichiren Shoshu the initial attraction seems to be the attainment of desired things which will make the person happy and reinforce belief. In Zen the attraction seems to be the striving for understanding of self and stimulation of the developmental process
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through disciplined practice, which eventually will lead to a real joy and happiness for the individual. Whereas discomfort is not emphasized in Nichiren Shoshu, in Zen the student may be purposely exposed to it for the purpose of breaking down "mind sets" and transcending the intellect.
This transcendence of the intellect to a syntaxic experience of inner reality at higher levels of consciousness is the basic thrust of Zen in terms of cognitive development. In terms of affective development, it is the transcendence of ego to identification with higher self nature. The merging of the two comes in the attainment of Buddahood which seems to be a development of self toward identification and unity with the numinous element.
The whole process of Zen meditation is directed toward a life style of affective and cognitive development designed to answer the question "Who am I?" As Suzuki puts it; "When you ask what Zen is, I say that Zen is you and you are Zen. The questioner is the answerer. Before you ask somebody outside what Zen is, you turn inwardly and ask, who am I?" (p. 18-19).
Turning inwardly is the practice of Zen meditation. It is practiced in a very disciplined manner under the direction of a Roshi or Master who guides the student's progress, providing challenges and offering encouragement.
The meditation may be viewed under four headings according to Humphreys (1971); 1) Continuity - the regular practice of meditation, 2) Zazen - Zen sitting wherein the student meditates upon a subject given him by the Roshi or Master, 3) Koan and Mundo - The Koan is a word, phrase or saying which defies intellectual analysis and thereby enables the user to burst the fetters of conceptual thought. The Mundo is a rapid exchange of question and answer between master and student, and 4) Satori - the intuitive looking into the nature of things.
Through the experiential process of Zen in the preceding manner, the dualistic intellectual process operating within ordinary states of consciousness is strained to the point of exposing its inability to understand the nature of inner reality through analysis. This inner reality is considered to have its own set of laws which transcend time, space, and personality and which consist of seeming paradoxes to ordinary intellectual process. An example of the paradox of inner reality is the statement by Suzuki (1957) that "In Buddhist Emptiness there is no time, no space, no becoming, no-thing-ness; it is what makes all these things possible; it is a zero full of infinite possibilities, it is a void of inexhaustible contests." (P. 30).
This inner reality with its seeming paradoxical relationships can
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only be understood by breaking through to higher levels of consciousness where there is a movement inward from creativity through mystical experience to enlightenment.
The growth process concurrently toward enlightenment and realization of higher self nature is many times referred to in Zen as attaining the Unattainable. It is considered such because it is beyond intellectual analysis and must be experienced. It is also considered such because it is a movement away from dualism toward unity, a movement from a turmoil of illusion to a reality of "Emptiness" and peace. Suzuki (1971) speaks of the intellect and its role in Zen in "attaining the unattainable" as follows: "Zen never despises intellection as such, but it wants intellection to know its place and not to go beyond the sphere it properly belongs to.
4.67 Vedanta29
In basic terms, Vedanta is perhaps the trunk of the tree from which all of the previous forms have branched. It sprung from ancient Hindu philosophy and demonstrates the very nature of Indian philosophy itself. According to Rao (1966) the nature of this philosophy " . . . is the search for an experience of Reality. The subject-matter of Indian philosophy, however, is not the entire reality. It is more, the true nature of the self." (p. 33). This emphasis on the true understanding of self as the key to reality is basic to the Vedantic striving for emancipation from ignorance. The concern for an accurate perception of self as a basis for understanding internal and external reality and for growth is of critical importance.
The Vedanta philosophy and meditative practice (which is an experiential validation of the philosophy) are derived from the teachings of three principle texts: 1) the Upanishads, 2) the Bhagavad Gita, and 3) the Vedanta Sutras.
The fundamental principle involved in the teachings according to Denssen (1906) is that Brahman (the eternal principle of all being, which creates and sustains all worlds and absorbs them) is identical with the Atman, the self or soul (our true essence when judged rightly). This soul is not a part of Brahman, but it is fully and entirely the eternal indivisible Brahman itself. In order to experience this "divine" nature (or higher self nature) within the individual he must "go within" through meditation.
The method which is chosen for meditation can vary depending upon the individual and is determined by the guru. The guru is extremely important in Vedanta meditation and performs a similar function to the Zen Master in guiding the student in his development. He also maintains a position of high respect for his exemplary life
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style. However, in contrast to the Zen Master, the guru in Vedanta reinforces the experiential development of the student with teachings from the three principle texts. The purpose for this seems to be to give the student a framework from which to direct his daily life and to point the intellect toward thoughts of a higher nature. This is so that as his experience validates these teachings he continues to evolve in both affective and cognitive areas and does not continue to accumulate Karma due to improper actions along the way.
In Vedanta the guru recognizes that there are many paths to the goal of emancipation from unreality and therefore the Mantra, object, or technique of meditation may vary for each student based upon the one the guru deems best suited to the student.
As a reflection of its philosophy of dispelling external illusion and experiencing inner reality, according to Denssen (1906), Vedanta meditation stresses the " . . . withdrawing of the organs of sense from everything external and in concentrating them upon one's own inner nature." (p. 8). In comparison with the previous forms of meditation this "withdrawing" may be seen as emphasizing the existence of reality only at higher levels of consciousness and being rather than the existence of reality at varying levels of consciousness. This latter emphasis is seen as an illusion.
The process of meditation taught by the guru is intended to allow the student to validate the truth of the guru's teachings and thereby acquire true knowledge of reality. In fact true knowledge is considered the means of emancipation in Vedanta. Acquiring true "knowledge" in Vedanta can be likened to the syntaxic experience of higher levels of consciousness in the cognitive area and contact with higher self nature in the affective area as seen in the previous forms of meditation.
4.68 Integral Yoga
We have seen that the procedures of the creative stage become steadily more cerebral. It is true even of the various forms of meditation. Tantric and hatha yoga, for example, depend considerably upon physical and somatic aspects. Integral Yoga, by contrast, does not. It was discovered and developed by Sri Aurobindo (Ghose), a brilliant and fiery Indian nationalist and contemporary of Gandhi's who took honors at Oxford, and later was imprisoned for agitating for Indian Independence. Renouncing politics, in the 1920's he established an ashram at Pondicherry, India, where as a persuasive writer and religious leader, he became famous for his cognitive approach.30
Sri Aurobindo taught that it was possible for the conscious ego to receive the numinous element and yet retain consciousness if certain rules were followed. His method avoids the "trance" aspects of samadhi,
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and de-emphasizes the "ecstatic" aspects of mystic experience. First purification and meditation in an ashram is necessary. Then as his biographer Satprem (1968:38-9) tells us, comes one of the first signs of enlightenment - the "descent of the force."
We feel around the head and more particularly at the nape of the neck an unusual pressure which may give the sensation of a false headache. At the beginning we cannot endure it for long and shake it off, we seek distraction.... Gradually this pressure takes a more distinct form, and we feel a veritable current which descends (i.o.). . . .
This is the start of the integral yoga of Aurobindo, a pranic force which descends the spine instead of ascending it like the kundalini. According to Aurobindo this method results in no ecstatic moments, but better, complete cognition at all times. "The physical effect is almost exactly that of walking in the breeze."
As this process continues (Satprem, 1968:40-1) one becomes like "a solid cool block of peace." One experiences the descent of Shakti as a vast aquamarine blueness and an indescribable coolness (for it is endothermic, not exothermic like the psychic heat of the rising kundalini).31
The next effect (Satprem, 1968:42) is the emergence of a new mode of knowledge. One noticeable sign that order is surfacing in the lives of those who are well along this path is the appearance of a phenomenon we will define as synergy. Synergy occurs in at least two forms. First there is synergy within the individual who is ready for enlightenment; it is commonly found in those who have firmly established the creative routine. It depends upon the fact that while the human mind can attend to only one idea at a time, cosmic mind can attend to a great many (much like a shared-time computer). What happens is that one day, one finds oneself witnessing the fact that a number of things are going on in consciousness, all at the same time. Instead of conflict, however, all these discrete matters are managed harmoniously and effectively. The concept of the witness is an important one of which many occult writers speak.
As Sri Aurobindo puts it (Satprem, 1968:45) "The mind is not an instrument of knowledge, but only an organizer of knowledge." It should be noted that synergy, like other effects in this area is anti-entropic, that is, it contributes to order, not disorder.
In the creative stage, this universal mind (the collective preconscious) leaked creative ideas to the conscious ego (as though by osmosis through a permeable membrane) so that the ego is suffered to think that the ideas are its own. But as one becomes more creative verging
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towards the next stage, one has "openings" wherein the ego consciousness is allowed to enter the enlarged domain of the preconscious: the doors of Aladdin's cave are thrown open, and the ego is dazzled by what it finds therein, which it recognizes as coming from outside its own narrow confines. (This is the witness level.)
Having found out (says Satprem, 1968:47) not only
. . . that the thoughts of others come to us from the outside, but that our own thoughts also come to us in the same way from outside ... when we are sufficiently transparent, we can feel in the silent immobility of the mind, little swirling eddies which draw our attention ...
we have caught a mental vibration before it has had time to enter and rise to our conscious so that we would perceive it as "my thought."
This extension of empathy is the key to reading the thoughts of others, and to the concept of synergy which we have been discussing. The mental transparency on occasion allows us to visualize more easily, which strengthens our orthocognitive processes, and may allow us to predict, heal or scry. It may also occasionally allow us (in the manner of TV chromokeying32) to see superimposed on the physical reality we are in, another superphysical or psychic and separate reality which appears momentarily and then fades away (just like the superimposed chromokeyed TV picture of the news event appears behind the news commentator as he discusses it, and then fades away).
The second concept of synergy has to do with activities between individuals. For with similarly advanced individuals, instead of responding with the usual difficulties and entropy which a bunch of individual minds might be supposed to cause, these individuals (as though polarized by some external magnet), all seem to operate harmoniously like the constituent parts of a unified social body. This enormously reduces the waste time and effort which would otherwise result from the random operation between these individuals.33
A third concept is the "witness phenomenon," which was also mentioned as the last effect sometimes seen in highly creative individuals (section 4.37m). It is the result of the full preparation of the mind, having been stilled and quieted, to receive its cosmic guest.
Satprem (1968:43) points out that this ability to sustain a bit of the silence even in the workaday world leads to an important step:
He will have discovered the Witness (i.o.) in himself and will let himself be captured less and less by the exterior play which ... tries to swallow us alive.
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Satprem quotes Sri Aurobindo (1968:78) on what western psychologists would call "dasein-choosing" in regard to untoward life events:
Is it not possible that the soul itself ... has accepted and chosen these things as part of its development in order to get through the necessary experience at a rapid rate ... even at the cost of damage to the outward life. . . . To the spirit within us may not difficulties ... be a means of growth ... ?
Satprem (1968:94) identifies this inner fire as "Agni:" "the self of fire," "the only true 'I' in us." The Katha Upanishad is quoted:
"A conscious being is in the center of the self, who rules past and future; he is like a fire without smoke."
The individual who in the syntaxic mode is psychedelically in command of his environment through such techniques as meditation and orthocognition is in a similar circumstance to the individual having the lucid dream: both are aware that the environment in which they appear to find themselves is but a dream; both are aware that this environment can be changed by the individual will.
4.69 Conclusion
1. Meditation is the final procedure, so at this point we are able to draw conclusions about meditation, about the creative stage, and about procedures in general. As the highest procedure of the creative stage, meditation is fully cognitive and syntaxic, but curiously enough the mind is not exercised, it is stilled. For meditation clearly looks ahead to an infusion which is both super-rational and transpersonal. This stilling of the mind in preparation for something to come, - his cleaning of the house and setting it in order to receive an important guest - this process is the hallmark of all meditational forms.
2. Meditation also involves some kind of purification of the senses, reduction of perceptual intake, avoidance of thoughts which are gross and sordid. It involves a change in attentional shift, from concepts built on percepts to prathahara (withdrawal of the mind from sensory percepts). It has some kind of cleansing quality.
3. Unlike creativity which seeks a social response to solve a problem, and orthocognition, which seeks some personal relief or benefit, meditation seeks no product beyond itself. It therefore is the only procedure to gain independence from the ego.
4. Table XI compares the various forms of meditation, with the anchor points of humanistic therapy on the lower end, and mysticism (the next stage) on the upper. It will be seen that while most forms of meditation reflect some adaptation of Vedic principles, they differ with respect to dogma, guru, discipline, objectives, and participants.
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Table XI Comparison Between Various Forms of Meditation
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It appears that in some way not fully understood as yet, creativity may be a substitute for at least some of the activities of meditation. Both appear to have unique properties in "preparing" individuals for psychedelic or mystic experience. For example, the "witness phenomena" (seen in creativity in section 4.37m) is also seen in Integral Yoga (section 4.68). Psychological and semantic flexibility (sections 4.371), and general systems theory, (section 4.38) are akin to synergy and other similar effects seen in Integral Yoga (section 4.68). There is also relation between serendipity (section 4.37d) and some similar effects found in both Transcendental Meditation and Biofeedback. Creativity, hence, like Biofeedback and Meditation, prepares its practitioners in some sense for the "Response Experience" (Jhana-1), and the "Access State" (Jhana- 0) which had earlier been thought to be the function of meditation alone. Indeed, it appears that all of the procedures of the creative level, besides their outer benefits, have in common to a greater or less degree this preparatory function for the glories of the psychedelic state.
5. One of the remarkable aspects of meditation is the absolute unanimity with which all systems, Christian, Hindu, and others name it as an indispensable component of development and deliverance. Even the name is the same everywhere (see Table XII). Meditation, said St. Teresa, (Leuba, 1925:163) is the upper limit of the range of mental activity. In this statement she indicates an intuitive realization of the difference between procedures and graces, for this is as far as man can go by his own effort. She also appears to recognize that at this level distractions are annoying. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:167-8) says much the same, pointing that meditation often takes place with difficulty owing to distractions. Christian meditations appear to differ from mantric meditations in that thoughts of love of God are uppermost in the former, while cessation of all thought is sought in the latter. Poulain (1912:7-12, Leuba, 1925:177) adds to meditation (discursive prayer), affective prayer (in which the affections are predominant), and The Prayer of Simplicity or The Prayer of Simple Regard (quiet adoration). In yogic meditation (Eliade, 1969:84-88) having disposed of the lower form with its distractions, the yogi passes to a higher form without distraction which would fall into jhana-1, and hence into the Psychedelic Stage (section 4.71). Meditation then, appears universally recognized as the last conscious procedure instituted from man alone, involving some kind of cognitive reflection, subject to annoying distractions, but an indispensable prologue to Psychedelic Ecstasy.
Wilhelm (1962:50-1) describes three confirmatory evidences of progress towards enlightenment in meditation:
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a. the sound of men talking at a distance, like a muffled echo,
b. light in the eyes so that everything before one becomes bright,
c. levitation, a feeling of being drawn upward.
6. The creative stage is characterized by five procedures, tantric sex, creativity, orthocognition, biofeedback, and meditation. From first to last, the procedures steadily become more cerebral, more unselfish, more concerned with mind-expansion, and more involved in control of the environment. This stage is truly the arena of activity of any adult who has escalated from the formal operations level of Piaget. The whole stage with its five procedures is therefore of intense interest to the intelligent, educated adult. It forms an indispensable bridge to growth and self-actualization for our culture, and constitutes the only method of making ready for, or understanding the phenomena of, the psychedelic stage. It is for this reason that we have taken the space to discuss it so specifically.
The procedures in general, across the three modes from prototaxic to syntaxic, appear to be specific and distinct methods of contacting the numinous element, generally in an altered state of consciousness (although this fact is less true with the higher procedures than it is with the lower). From sometimes gross and somatic aspects, the procedures become more cognitive and cerebral; they gain in social effect and benefit; they steadily become more developmental. They end with meditation which is suitably an invitation for something higher - namely a grace.
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY
We now come to the psychedelic stage with its six levels of graces and with the most remarkable, emergent, and spectacular properties. The most egregious of these is mystic ecstasy, found uniformly throughout the stage, and the principle characteristic which distinguishes a grace from a procedure - namely that the procedure can be initiated, but the grace comes from without or "on high." Every culture has its traditions of mysticism; we prefer the word psychedelia, as pointing to the mind-expansion involved in the process. Consciousness indeed wakes up in a corner of space and time, and in a little ego, yet its potential is to become conscious of all space, all time, and of transpersonality.
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Table XII Comparison of Mystic and Psychedelic Levels in Christian and Hindu Sources
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As we did in the last procedure of meditation, we shall perforce lean heavily on Hindu sources, not only because they are clearer, but also because they are more amenable to psychological investigation than are Christian. Nevertheless, we shall in deference to the background of most of our readers quote as many Christian sources as are appropriate. This will lead to some seeming dichotomy, since the two religious traditions are not completely compatible. Riviere (1973:69-70) points out a doctrinal difference between Eastern and Western forms of mysticism. Whereas in the West, mysticism is looked upon as a grace from on high, for which man cannot prepare a sufficient but only a necessary condition, in the yoga tradition, this development is seen as a natural accretion of powers which depend upon the disciple's own efforts.
Webster's 1971 addendum defines psychedelic (from psyche-soul, and delos-reveal) (for its first meaning) as follows: "Relating to or causing an exposure of normally repressed psychic elements." We shall use this meaning, rather than employing "psychedelia" as a synonym for drug use. Watts (1972:354) uses "psychedelic" to mean 'mind manifesting'.
Natural psychedelic experiences occur in a wide number of differing situations, involving certain common elements:
1) The attention of the subject is gripped, and his perception narrowed or focused on a single event or sensation;
2) which appears to be an experience of surpassing beauty or worth;
3) in which values or relationships never before realized are instantaneously or very suddenly emphasized;
4) resulting in the sudden emergence of great joy and an orgiastic experience of ecstasy;
5) in which individual barriers separating the self from others or nature are broken down;
6) resulting in a release of love, confidence, or power; and
7) some kind of change in the subsequent personality, behavior, or artistic product after the rapture is over.
"Psychedelic experience" means a mind-expanding or mind-disclosing experience, and is not confined to the narrow use in terms of psychoactive drugs. It embraces mystic, peak, ecstatic, oceanic, illuminative, nature, communal, and other types of experiences having certain common qualities revealing emergent aspects of mind, and contact or union, immediate and not through the senses, with some absolute (see Gowan 1974: ch 3).
Assuredly there are gradations in these experiences; they are not all of equal depth. There are several aspects which appear to be common to them all:
1) they often have an uncanny, supernormal quality;
2) they involve euphoria or bliss to an extent unknown in most usual activities;
3) they seem to be important in some strange way;
4) there is some element of transcendence, and
5) they remain in the memory longer and more vividly than ordinary events.
Maslow (Mooney and Razik, 1967, p. 49ff) describes some of the characteristics of persons having peak experiences. He lists them as
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"giving up the past, giving up the future, innocence, a narrowing of consciousness, loss of self-consciousness, disappearance of fear, lessening of defenses, strength and courage, acceptance, trust, receptivity, integration, ability to dip into the preconscious, aesthetic perceiving, spontaneity, expressiveness, and fusion with the world."
Stace (1960) identifies nine qualities of the psychedelic experience as follows:
1) unity,
2) transformation of space and time,
3) deeply felt positive mood,
4) sacredness,
5) objectivity and reality,
6) paradoxicality,
7) alleged ineffability,
8) transiency, and
9) persisting positive changes in subsequent behavior.
Russell (1925:9) describes the credo of the mystic which is essentially what has been said in sections 4.1 and 4.5 as:
1) there is a better way of gaining information than through the senses;
2) there is unity in all things,
3) there is no reality in time, and
4) all evil is mere appearance.
Masters and Houston (1966:266) report:
The Integral Level. When we examine those psychedelic experiences which seem to be authentically religious, we find that during the session the subject has been able to reach the deep integral level wherein lies the possibility of confrontation with a Presence variously described as God, Spirit, Ground of Being, Mysterium, Noumenon, Essence, and Ultimate or Fundamental Reality. In this confrontation there no longer is any question of surrogate sacrality. The experience is one of direct and unmediated encounter with the source level of reality, felt as Holy, Awful, Ultimate, and Ineffable.
Bucke (1923) was the first writer to give a semi-psychological explanation to the psychedelic state. His book Cosmic Consciousness, although heavily loaded with the religious usage of the time, recorded what he called the "illumination" of 45 individuals, and thus provided a prototype for Maslow's later study on self-actualized persons. He was the first to bring mysticism into the light of psychological examination. He defined his "illumination" as follows:
a) The person, without warning, has a sense of being immersed in a flame or cloud;
b) he is bathed in an emotion of joy, assurance, triumph, or salvation;
c) an intellectual illumination, a clear conception or vision of the meaning of the universe; he sees and knows that the Cosmos is a living presence;
d) a sense of immortality;
e) the vanishing of the fear of death;
f) and sin;
g) the whole experience is instantaneous or nearly so,
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h) the previous character of the percipient is important,
i) so is the age at which the experience occurs (which is between 25 and 40),
j) there is added a charm of personality,
k) and in some case change in appearance such as might happen to one who experienced great joy.
Viewed psychologically the adventitious elevation of an individual into a higher state of consciousness, such as a nature mystic experience must be viewed with considerable interest. There has obviously been an excess of pranic energy, but why has it taken the outlet of bringing a higher state of experience into consciousness? One can only speculate that there must be some predisposing cause (high intelligence, poetic, artistic, or high moral disposition, etc), and an environmental "trigger" (nature, etc.) which produces a temporary escalation into a higher developmental state, much as an encounter group may produce a peak experience in one ready for it.
The every day processes of living in the conscious mind usually succeed in the average individual in successfully compartmentalizing off the preconscious. But very occasionally, we find, for reasons that we are yet unaware, the upwelling of the preconscious area, like the eruption of molten magma from the mantle of the earth. This onset of active subliminal life may appear as the prepsychotic panic reaction of Boisen (1932) in those for whom its coming is premature and prototaxic. In artists and others of parataxic outlets, it may surface as the sudden shift in life style which overtook Gauguin and transformed him from a French bourgeois to a tropical castaway. Finally, in those already creative or firmed in the syntaxic mode, it appears as a creative or higher opening, poetical, musical, or even as a theophany or mystic ecstasy.
It is even possible that the psychedelic state is somewhat different than that reported by the mystics of the past (i.e., a state of fortuitous graces), and that it embraces a larger domain of which transports, raptures, and ecstasies are merely the affective overload. If mind expansion can occur without the emotional effects usually associated with it in the past, and if the psychedelic stage is now within reach of the "normal" developmental process, then one may reasonably ask: (1) what are the disposing characteristics of readiness, and (2) what is the psychedelic state without the appearance of the conventional psychic powers?
The disposing characteristics of readiness seem to be clearly outlined in the "prayer of quiet" aspects of the higher meditative state in which distractions do not occur. The psychedelic state without conventional psychic manifestations consists in increased control over one's
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mind, one's feelings, and one's environment, so that one ceases to be a reactive being and begins (as part of the noumenon) to design one's life and future. But before going further, it is necessary to point out emphatically that it is possible to be in the psychedelic state and not have peak experiences or ecstasies. Though Bucke included Emerson "out" of his illumined elect because Emerson was too cognitive for such an experience, Maslow was wise enough to realize that there are "peakers" and "non-peakers." (The writer admits that he is one of the latter). While non-peakers might become peakers by the infusion of psychoactive drugs, it is possible to learn from vicarious as well as direct experience. The austere attitude of Sri Aurobindo on this subject of ecstasy should caution us adequately (section 4.68). For those still unconvinced, there is a little classic called The Appeal of Quakerism to the Non-Mystic (Littleboy:1916, 1964) which is very helpful. While it is certainly conducive to a good marriage for the wife to go into orgiastic ecstasy twice a week, it is not necessary; the same situation applies here.
From our individual conscious view, a psychedelic experience is an episode when the doors of the preconscious swing open and the conscious mind finds itself master in a new and enlarged domain, with awe and exaltation resulting from new insights and expanded control. From the preconscious side, the phenomenon can be viewed as a final breaking through into consciousness of psychic tension which needed the fresh air of expression. It is at last a full syntaxic consciousness of the numinous, which is finally received at the full cognitive level; it is finally housed in cognitive consciousness, which is its predestined domicile. The juncture involves both expansion of cognitive knowledge and emergent aspects of affective union, seen in the appropriate ecstasy.
All higher religions attempt to clarify this relationship of the individual ego to the general mind. Indeed, the process of life may be viewed as development of the self from ego-centricity to a merging with the noumenon in psychedelic experience. Cogitation (literally a "shaking-up") explains the discontinuity of successive developmental stages in which the ego is reoriented by permuting its relationship, first to the world of experience, then to itself, then to the beloved other (see Gowan 1974:48ff). This cycle of differential emphasis forces the ego into new experiences, breaking it loose from ego-centricity, and directing it on a sequence culminating in the full ability to understand its nature and function. Such development eventuates in cognitive access to the preconscious, which allows conscious juncture with the numinous, and the prerogatives and powers of the psychedelic state.
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4.71 Response Experiences37
The initial grace in the psychedelic stage is the response experience. In response experiences one feels a sense of Presence, but hears not and sees not the Lord; in the Adamic Ecstasy one hears the Lord, but does not see him. In the Knowledge Ecstasy, one sees the Lord. In Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree one, one touches Him (or is touched); in Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree two, one penetrates Him (or is penetrated by Him). In Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree three, one merges with Him.
The name "Response Experience" comes from Laski (1962:100) who denies that it is a true ecstasy (though many others would dispute her), and calls it a response experience because it appears to be "triggered" by some aspect of nature. Perhaps for this reason it is often called a nature-mystic experience, and as such is frequently noted by poets, artists, writers, and other intellectuals. It is also cognate with Freud's "oceanic" experience and Maslow's "peak-experience."
As the "lowest" psychedelic experience, it contains all the basic properties of the class: the self is purified; fear and shame vanish; there is a realization or feeling that "All is one;" the concept of Gemeinschaftsgefuhl or reconciliation with all men as brothers and indeed all life is felt. Christian Scripture tells us that we must be reconciled with our brother and become purified before we can enter the presence of God, and while the preliminary conditions are met, this procedure is "low" precisely because the self does not yet identify the presence it feels as numinous. In place of merging with the numinous element, there is often merging with nature or some natural object, but all experiences of this level involve a oneness with the creation rather than with the creator.
Rufus Jones tells us of his mystical experience which occurred as a young man in the foothills of the Alps (1932:196-7):
I was walking alone in the forest, trying to map out my plan of life. . . . Suddenly I felt the walls between the visible and the invisible grow thin, and the Eternal seemed to break through into the world where I was. I saw no flood or light, I heard no voice. But I felt as though I was face to face with a higher order of reality.
Laski (1962:418) quotes Richard Church, the writer, as follows:
I felt the hair of my head tingling, and a curtain of red blood appeared to fall before my eyes. I leaned forward, clasping myself close, while the world rocked around me. And as this earthquake
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subsided, I saw a new skyline defined. It was a landscape in which objects and words were fused. . . .
Thomas Merton, the mystic friar, describes his theophany (1962:278-9):
But what a thing it was, this awareness: it was so intangible, and yet it struck me like a thunderclap. It was a light so bright that it had no relation to any visible light.... It was as if I had suddenly been illuminated by being blinded by the manifestation of God's presence.
Otto (1928:221) quotes George Allen on a numinous experience of the critic John Ruskin:
'Lastly, although there was no definite religious sentiment mingled with it, there was a continual perception of Sanctity in the whole of nature, from the slightest thing to the vastest; an instinctive awe, mixed with delight; an indefinable thrill, such as we sometimes imagine to indicate the presence of a disembodied spirit. I could only feel this perfectly when I was alone; and then it would often make me shiver from head to foot with the joy and fear of it, when after being some time away from hills I first got to the shore of a mountain river, where the brown water circled among the pebbles, or when I first saw the swell of distant land against the sunset, or the first low broken wall, covered with mountain moss. I cannot in the least describe the feeling; but I do not think this is my fault, nor that of the English language, for I am afraid no feeling is describable. If we had to explain even the sense of bodily hunger to a person who had never felt it, we should be hard put to it for words; and the joy in nature seemed to me to come of a sort of heart-hunger, satisfied with the presence of a Great and Holy Spirit.'
Underhill (1960:234) regards this initial experience as one held in common by poets, artists, and mystics:
To see God in nature, to attain to a radiant consciousness of the "otherness" of natural things, is the simplest and commonest form of illumination. . . Where such a consciousness is recurrent, as it is with many poets, for instance, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Browning, Tennyson, and Whitman, there results a partial yet often overpowering apprehension of the Infinite Life imminent in all living things, which some modern writers have dignified by the name of "nature-mysticism."
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Underhill goes on to aver that the true mystic takes this experience as a point of departure, and grows in grace from it, whereas the poet and artist simply use the recurrent experience as a basis for artistic production and personal euphoria.
Since we have elsewhere described many examples of this experience (Gowan 1974:113-119), we forbear further here. Other examples will be found in Bucke (1902), Laski (1962) and Happold (1970:129-142).
This naturally induced psychedelic experience differs from the drug-induced psychedelic experience because the ego is more openly and overtly in control. Some "good trips" on drugs may result in affective elevation similar to the natural psychedelic experience, but "bad trips" on drugs seem to have no counterpart in the natural state, probably because natural psychedelia does not occur until one is ready for it.
Response experiences are much like siddhis, -psychedelic displays, which need to be followed up by action and development. They represent readiness and potentiality, not accomplishment, (see Huxley 1945:68, 171).
Indeed one may look at such response experiences as virtually an example of an ecstasy in the parataxic mode, where the numinous element is veiled by nature, and while one is conscious of a presence, one is not sure what that presence is. Such experiences appear to be triggered both by the good health of the individual and by some natural incident. They are evidence of the wonders that lie ahead, and constitute an earnest and an invitation to proceed. Since the affective precedes the cognitive, there is more affective thrill than cognitive understanding to them. One feels rather than knows. Nevertheless, such experiences can redirect one's life, for they give one the exaltation of standing on a high mountain and gaining for a minute the glory of a grand vista.
In concentrating our attention on ecstasy as the most spectacular aspect of jhana -1, we have not given much attention to the mechanics of progress through the grace. There are both Christian and Hindu traditions about these matters, to which we now turn (Table X11). St. Teresa (Leuba, 1925:164) calls this state the Orison of Quiet; (it is also the fourth dwelling in her Interior Castle). As a "foretaste of supernatural favors," God's grace elevates the soul so that memory and understanding act only spasmodically, and the mind is passive and stilled. Meditation may sometimes be an effort: The Prayer of Quiet is enjoyed for itself. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:168) calls this level Contemplation. Thought is immobilized onto simple regard for the loved Deity; there is total attention to this Object. Poulain (1912:13, 65) (Leuba, 1925:178) calls this state The Prayer
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of Quiet in which the devotee has crossed "an abyss" (from a procedure to a grace). Poulain explains this change in that while in meditation we may think of the presence of God, in The Prayer of Quiet we feel the presence; (note how well this statement qualifies the state for jhana -1 with its sense of presence.).
Patanjali (Eliade, 1969:88ff) says the same thing more abstractly when he points out that while meditation with distraction "thinks about an object," meditation without distraction brings one to dharma in which one penetrates to the essence of the object, and therefore assimilates it in an almost magical sense. Since the "object" is usually Vishnu (or a similar god), "assimilation" means the presence of the deity.
4.72 Adamic or 'Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0)
The next level of ecstasy is one to which Blake's great words "the doors of perception are cleansed" apply. All things are seen in the pristine goodness which Adam found before he fell from grace (hence the name). This is the Hindu "access" state in which the primary object does not fully occupy the mind, but comes and goes transiently. God is heard although not seen. The self is restored to primitive grace. Siddhis are most likely in this stage, particularly those of bodily lightness as though floating on air. There may also be light flashes, or waves before the eyes; also noise like running water or the muffled sound of men talking at a distance. Because at this level there is initial loosening of the time aspect of the triple illusion, there often appears to be renewal or restoration of that which has been lost in the past, hence a reestablishment of pristine glory; this can also become a siddhi in which the individual sees the activities of a former time as in a vision. Another common experience is being enveloped in fire or seeing it close by.
Leuba (1925:209) describes an Adamic Ecstasy (Participant is climbing a mountain):
When all at once I experienced a sense of being raised above myself; I felt the presence of God. . . . I could barely tell the boys to pass on and not wait for me. I then sat down on a stone, unable to stand any longer, and my eyes overflowed with tears. I thanked God. . . .
Knox (1950:153) quotes George Fox in another Adamic Ecstasy:
Now was I come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new, and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words
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can utter. I know nothing but pureness, innocency, and righteousness being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus, so that I was come up into the state of Adam which he was in before he fell.
Bucke (1923:v) tells about his own "illumination"
All at once without warning of any kind I found myself wrapped in a flame colored cloud. . . . Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation ... of immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe.
Bucke was surprised to find that such unusual experiences were more common than he had expected, and his book Cosmic Consciousness which catalogs a number of similar ecstasies, (first printed in 1901) has gone through many reprintings. Among the many historical figures cited in the book, one of the most telling is that of Blaise Pascal, famous French scientist and mathematician who had an experience which literally changed his life. He wrote about it as follows (Bu and "many of us have sacred landscapes which probably all have much in common."
D. H. Lawrence in The Rainbow (1949:204-5) echoes a similar timelessness:
Away from time, always outside of time. . Here in the church, "before" and "after" were folded together, all was contained in oneness.
as does T. S. Eliot in "Four Quartets."
Happold (1970:x368-70) quotes Thomas Traherne on the latter's Adamic ecstasy. Since such an ecstasy recovers "le temps perdu" it constitutes a vision of the durative topocosm:
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehension of the world than I.... All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and delightful. . . . All things were spotless, and pure, and glorious. I saw all in the peace of Eden. . . . All time was eternity. . . The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. . . . The men, 0 what venerable and reverend creatures... and the young men glittering and sparkling angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty. ... Boys and girls were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; but all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the light of day, and something infinite behind everything appeared. . . .
The difference between "hearing the Lord" and "seeing the Lord" which distinguishes Adamic ecstasies from Knowledge ecstasies, is illustrated in Exodus 33:9, 11, 18-23.
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And it came to pass as Moses entered the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face. . . . And he said "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." And (the Lord) said "Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live.... And it shall come to pass that while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft in the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, while I pass by. And I will take away my hand and thou shall see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.
From which it is evident that Moses had an Adamic vision.
Many saints are reputed to have had time ecstasies in which they had a vision of holy events. St. Bridget, while adoring a creche, had a vision of Jesus' birth. St. Francis received the Stigmata in a similar instance. St. Teresa, and many others have had such theophanies.
Let us see what the mystics say about jhana 0, or the "access" state. St. Teresa (Leuba, 1912:164) calls this "The Sleep of the Powers" or the Orison of Union (in her Interior Castle where it is the fifth dwelling). As the last state before complete rapture, the soul is more and more absorbed in the complete contemplation of God, which is found more and more enjoyable. The intellectual and sensory powers seem asleep. Teresa calls this state "a celestial madness." Similar strong affective aspects are mentioned by St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1912:168) who calls it Amorous Abstraction and mentions the "presence of the Bridegroom;" "the soul hears his voice." Mental activity is reduced to nil. Father Poulain (1912) Leuba (1925:178) calls this state Full Union. He says:
The soul is fully occupied with the divine object; it is not diverted by any other thought; in short it has no distractions.
The Hindus also agree that this level involves ecstasy which they call "samadhi." The lowest level is samadhi "with support" (sampajnata) in which samadhi is achieved (Eliade, 1969:93) "with the help of an object or a thought." The yogi penetrates the essence of the object, and assimilates it, but he is still differentiated from it. This samadhi level makes possible knowledge and puts an end to suffering. While there is not perfect correspondence between the yogic graces and the Christian, either here or in the next samadhi level, there is an outside-of-time aspect which corresponds to our Adamic Ecstasy. For example, in "gripping" an object the yogi assimilates its past and future, as well as its present.
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The analysis of Adamic time Ecstasies can offer comfort to those persons disturbed by the doom-saying of mystics like Edgar Cayce. Let us remember that under the conditions of the vision (which appears in pictorial form and must later be interpreted in words), the time element has become "distorted," that is, we are in the domain of the "durative topocosm" not clock time. What the mystic therefore interprets as a vision of the future may in actuality be an Adamic Ecstasy recovering the past. A good example of this is the experience of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, in Lichfield (Nickalls, 1952:1962:41-2). Fox admits that he confused a paranormal recollection of early Christian persecution in times past with what he interpreted to be a prediction of future events in his famous "Woe unto the bloody city of Lichfield." (ef pp. 49, 141, 165).
It is also important to realize that Christian mystics may have unintentionally deceived us about the actual value of ecstasies themselves. Satprem (1968:194-5) points out that what we call "transcendent" may merely be the limit of our present consciousness, and today's transcendence may be tomorrow's commonplace. Satprem feels that the neophyte is wrong "in believing that his ecstasy is a sign of progress," for instead, it is a sign of inconscience. "Try to develop your inner individuality, and you will be able to enter these regions in full consciousness," and as Sri Aurobindo says: "It is only when the realization is constant in the waking state that it is truly possessed." In a footnote, noting that "extare" by definition means to be outside one's body, Satprem coins a better Latin derivation "enstasy" which is defined as above.
The mystic experiences of various religious leaders are noted by the Thomases (1942:31, 109, 223) who say:
Zoroaster on Mt. Sabalon saw the seven faces of Ahura Mazda, who ushered him into heaven and gave him much knowledge. (Jhana 1)
Muhammad on the mountain had a vision and heard the voice of Allah. (Jhana 0)
Swedenborg was prepared for his theophany and the gift of second sight by "three years of abnormally long periods of supernatural slumber filled with a continual and logical sequence of dreams." Swedenborg says of this situation: "I was elevated into heaven by degrees and in proportion as I was elevated, my understanding became enlarged, so that I was gradually enabled to perceive things which at first I had not perceived." This sounds very much like the development of a latent factor of intellect. Swedenborg also prefigures the concept of the hologram in that he believed that everything from the least onwards is in itself an image of the total being. Or as
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Emerson puts it: "Nature exists entire in its leasts." Tennyson had the same inspiration:
Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies;
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower- but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
St. Thomas Aquinas, after a long career as scholar and philosopher to the Catholic Church, had a visionary experience in chapel one Sunday. Declaring that his previous knowledge was as nothing compared with what had been revealed to him, he stopped in the middle of a book, and never wrote another word.
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1)34
Knowledge Ecstasies are so called because some transcendent knowledge is communicated suddenly and completely, so that the mystic "knows everything." This cognitive escalation is accompanied by moral illumination of the self. Commonly there is a vision of God who is now seen as well as heard. Hindering thoughts cease, and the primary object is attended constantly without distraction, and with bliss and rapture. As time began to disappear in the previous level, space begins to disappear in this one. This state has a quality of the ineffable, and it is also "noetic" (disclosing depths of knowledge), two characterizations of the mystic state. It is also, of course, transient, and there is passivity of the will.
Allen (1946:30-1) describes an ecstatic experience which occurred to him during a performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony:
It fell into three parts: first the mysterious event itself which occurred in the infinitesimal fraction of a split second; this I learned afterwards to call the Union . . . then illumination, a wordless stream of complex feelings ... lastly enlightenment, the recollection ... of the whole complex ... embalmed in thought-forms and words.
Reinhold (1973:228) quotes St. Francis of Rome:
I saw a very dazzling light that hovered over dense darkness. Within this light there was a tabernacle full of splendor, and above this tabernacle was our Saviour in His sacred human form, and His holy wounds streamed forth rays that garmented the saints with wonderful glory. A great number of saints surrounded
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Him. The Queen of Heaven was also there, and on her head she wore her three crowns from which beams of vivid light emanated. Then I saw other souls that were still one with their bodies. They entered this fire and left it again. Now this fire was the symbol of divine love. I was curious to know who these souls were that I beheld pass through the flame. I was told they belonged to living men who perservered in holy love, and that they came to renew holy love in this furnace.
St. Teresa calls jhana 1 Ecstasy or "Rapture of the Flight of the Soul" (Leuba, 1912:165). It is the sixth dwelling in her Interior Castle. In St. Teresa's words, this is virtual trance, which "comes on more suddenly than the other states, and can with much less success be resisted." When she tried "astonishing forces ... lifted me up." Thus she experienced levitation, one of the siddhis associated with jhanas 1-3. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:168) calls this state The Liquefaction of the Soul in God. Poulain (1912) refers to it simply as ecstasy in which "we are no longer able to come out of our prayer at will."
The Hindus call this state Savitarka Samadhi (argumentative) because (Eliade, 1969:95) thought identifies itself with the object meditated on in its essential totality. This direct perception of objects extends to their past and their future. In this Patanjali identifies this state as a "Knowledge Ecstasy" in which knowledge is communicated (Table XII).
Reinhold quotes St. Hildegard (1973:58):
1 saw what seemed to be a great iron-colored mountain. On it sat someone in such glory of light that his radiance dazzled me. On either side a wing both broad and long was spread. Before him stood a shape covered over with eye upon eye. . .
Let us reread Isaiah (6:1-7) which tells of his initial vision:
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face; with twain he covered his feet; with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The fullness of the whole earth is his glory" . . . And the posts of the door were moved at the voice of them that called and the house was filled with smoke. Then said 1: "Woe is me, for I am undone; Because I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, with a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken with the
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tongs from off the altar; and he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Lo this hath touched thy lips; and thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin expiated."
And again, St. Rose' vision of heaven:
I was suspended in quiet contemplation like a light uniting all things, when I saw a flash of wonderful splendor. In the center of the radiance was a rainbow of lucent reflections and colors and over it another of equal grandeur . . . . Above the arches stood the cross ... and within the arches ... shone the form of my Lord. . . .
As Underhill (1960:359) notes, ecstasy is a form of higher trance, "more or less deep, and more or less prolonged." During the trance there is the usual depression in breathing and circulation, with anesthesia and siddhis. (Underhill notes that Bernadette "held a flaming candle in her hand for fifteen minutes during one of her ecstasies. She felt no pain, either did the flesh show any marks of burning.") Rapture, as Underhill (1930:375) notes, is "a sudden and irresistible seizure of ecstasy." As St. Teresa describes it: "In a trance the soul dies gradually to outward things ... rapture comes as a shock, quick and sharp ... you feel and see yourself carried away." Rapture, thus looms very much like a conscious OOB experience (or if you prefer, levitation). Says St. Teresa: "At least I was so much myself as to be able to see that I was being lifted up." Underhill (1930:377) notes that Rulman Merswin was carried around the garden in his rapture, as was St. Catherine of Siena.
St. Catherine of Siena writes:
Oftentimes through the perfect union which the soul has made with Me, she is raised up from the earth almost as if the heavy body became light.
Poulain (1912:278-9) quotes St. Ignatius Loyola speaking of himself in the third person:
... sitting on the banks.... his mind was suddenly filled with a new and strange illumination, so that in one moment, and without any sensible image or appearance, certain things ... were revealed ... and this so abundantly ... that if all ... which he had received up to the time he was more than sixty-two years old could be collected into one ... all this knowledge would not equal what was at that moment conveyed
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Jacob Boehme, the German cobbler, tells of his experience (Bu). At the first level the primary object is transcended, and the self is embodied spiritually. This is the first action of the release of the individual from the prison of selfhood into merging with ultimate reality. Consequently in Knowledge-contact Ecstasy, the self is often felt lost. It is thought, however, that at this first level ecstasy and bliss continue.
Richard Rolle, the English mystic-poet (Wolters 1972:45) says: "My God, my Love, surge over me, pierce me by your love, wound me..." but later admits: "Yet you will not show yourself to me; you look away. . ." The first statement is a desire for jhana 2; the second is admission of being at the access level. Reinhold 1973:322 quotes St Teresa:
Our Lord was pleased that I should have at times a vision of this kind: I saw an angel close by me, on my left side, in bodily form. This I am not accustomed to see unless very rarely. Though I have visions of angels frequently, yet I see them only by an intellectual vision such as I have spoken of before. It was our Lord's will that in this vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature and most beautiful, his face burning as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call cherubim. Their names they never tell me; but I see very well that there is in heaven so great a difference between one angel and another, and between those and the others, that I cannot explain it.
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it time and again into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the
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sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God.
Wayman (Prince 1968:168) discusses three mystic stages of increasing primitiveness (or retreat from our normal discursive consciousness) Analogous to the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes he reports that yogins reach a non-discursive ecstasy from "sound, form, or the tangible." "It would be the difference between hearing the Lord (commonest), seeing the Lord (much rarer), and touching the Lord (rarest of all)."
Younghusband (1935:162) describes the passion of St. Therese of Lisieux:
I was in the choir ... when suddenly I felt myself wounded by a dart of fire so ardent, I thought I should die ... But what fire - what sweetness. Flames of love.
Underhill (1960:379) puts it well:
In the third degree of ardent Love, says Richard of St. Victor, love paralyzes action. Union (copula) is the symbol of this state; ecstasy is its expression. The desirous soul, he says finely, no longer thirsts for God but into God.
Speaking of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna, Younghusband (1930:27) says:
It was impossible to express in language the ecstasy of divine communication when the human soul lost itself in contemplation of the Deity.
Underhill (1960:356-7) quotes St. Teresa on the Contact Union Ecstasy:
In this state there is no sense of anything; only fruition, without understanding what that may be the fruition of which is granted. ... This state lasts only a short time, though the faculties do not . . . recover . . . for some hours. . . . It cannot be more clearly described, because what then takes place is so obscure. All I am able to say is that the soul is represented as being close to God ... All the faculties fail now, and are suspended. In the prayer of union the soul is asleep ... as regards herself and earthly things. The soul neither sees, hears, nor understands anything while in this state . . .
Laski (1961:123) says:
Sometimes the contact is felt to pass information, and we have
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a knowledge contact ecstasy, sometimes the contact is closer, and no information is passed, and sometimes this contact is of union.
The best Christian explication of the distinction between these three degrees of Knowledge-contact Ecstasies (Jhanas 2, 3, 4) was made by St. John of the Cross whom Reinhold (1973:329ff) quotes as follows:
Love unites the soul with God, and the more degrees of love the soul has, the more profoundly does it enter into God and the more is it centered in Him; and thus we can say that, as are the degrees of love of God, so are the centeres, each one deeper than another, which the soul has in God; these are the many mansions which, He said, were in His Father's house. And thus the soul which has one degree of love is already in its center in God, since one degree of love suffices for a soul to abide in Him through grace. If it have two degrees of love, it will have entered into another and a more interior center with God; and, if it attain to three, it will have entered into the third. If it attain to the last degree, the love of God will succeed in wounding the soul even in its deepest center - that is, in transforming and enlightening it as regards all the being and power and virtue of the soul, such as it is capable of receiving, until it be brought into such a state it appears to be God.
Outside of St. John of the Cross, there are no clear Christian distinctions here between jhanas 2, 3, and 4. They are essential Knowledge-contact Ecstasies of greater and greater degrees of intimacy and absorption. The Hindus do a better job. Patanjali (Eiade, 1969:9699) describes these as "knowledge states" with "miraculous powers." In jhana 2, Nirvitarka Samadhi (non-argumentative), the memory and logical operations of the mind have halted, and "thought is delivered from the presence of the ego." We would say that the object is transcended. In jhana 3, rapture ceases and there is direct knowledge. In jhana 4, all feelings cease, space and time are transcended, and there is "a fusion of all modalities of being." As creation is differentiation, so yogic escalation is integration, in which things go back into their original undifferentiated order.
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Let us imagine that a rather naive psychologist proposed to study happiness in marriage, and having no personal experience with that state himself, but having read that sex is important in marriage, and that orgasm is important in sex, he decides to rate the happiness of various marriages on the rate of orgasm experienced. Would his
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study be a very valid one? If we fall into a similar trap in allowing ourselves to "rate" syntaxic numinous experience in terms of ecstasy we have only our naivete to blame. For just as there are many aspects of marriage other than orgasm which contribute to conjugal happiness, there are many aspects of cognitive syntaxic development which are independent of the affective overtones of ecstasy and rapture.
It is even possible that we have been emotionally seduced by the "orgasm" concept of ecstasy; since orgasm is good, mystic ecstasy must be better. But as Sri Aurobindo austerely points out (Satprem, 1968:194-5)it is possible that ecstasy is merely the overloading of the affective channel:
Then instead of fainting away at the summit or what he takes for the summit, and believing that his ecstasy is a sign of progress, the seeker must understand that is is a sign of inconscience, and work to discover the living existence under his bedazzlement. Try to develop your inner individuality, says the Mother, and you will be able to enter these very regions in full consciousness. ... (i.d.)
This very reasonable view looks at ecstasy as a boundary of our present abilities, not as a definite state, and it explains both the somewhat disturbing fact that mystic trance looks a bit like prototaxic trance, and the ecstatic experiences grow less and not more as one comes nearer the unitive state. If this be true, and Sri Aurobindo prove a better guide to these regions than St. Teresa, the whole literature of mysticism needs to change its focus. Indeed, the word "ecstasy" from the Latin exstare (to be outside oneself) would need to be changed to "enstasy" (from enstare, to be inside oneself).
We shall continue with the "Christian" concept of ecstasy in our development of the graces, but this saving comment should alert us to the fact that this entire tradition may be founded on a misconception induced by affective overload.
Professor Leuba (1925) is skeptical about mystic ecstasy being more than hypnotic trance, self-imposed. He notes (Ibid: 187)that "the very first trance-experiences reach an intensity of feeling ... never to be surpassed" in which it resembles the "venting" of glossolalia (section 2.51) rather than any developmental effect. He also notes that the feeling of certainty of knowledge imparted under ecstasy is often felt under other types of mechanically or hypnotically induced trance where the evaluative faculty of the reason is held in abeyance. Finally he notes the great difference between the active, practical charity of the unitive state, and the automatisms of the psychedelic state. 'The wonders of trance ... had lost much of their initial glamor
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and . . . had receded to a subordinate place."
Since we are scientists, not religionists, it is not for us to follow Marechal in attacking Leuba for his skepticism. We would point out however, that Leuba lived in a time when most psychologists (with the exception of James) found it necessary to espouse such views because there was little support for any other. In contrast, the work since Leuba's time on the preconscious, creativity, the numinous element, developmental progress, biofeedback, self-actualization, psychedelia, and many other issues taken up in this volume give modern psychologists a much larger option.
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3)
At this level all ecstasy and rapture cease. God not only touches the soul; he enters in. The self is made "like fire and light."
Reinhold (1973:361) quotes Symeon the Younger:
Again I saw Him in my house. Among all those everyday things He appeared unexpectedly and became unutterably united and merged with me, and leaped over to me without anything in between, as fire to iron, as the light to glass. And He made me like fire and like light. And I became that which I saw before and beheld from afar. I do not know how to relate this miracle to you.
Indeed it is possible that with the entrance of the numinous element "into" the saint, we have passed beyond the syntaxic mode itself, and are in something which can only be called the "meta-syntaxic" mode. Words and knowledge now cease to be very useful as either explanation or communication being succeeded by graces which are essentially ineffable and incommunicable. While we shall continue for the sake of simplicity to regard these higher graces as ostensibly belonging to the syntaxic mode, it should be understood that they involve a limit situation whose properties clearly transcend the attributes of the mode. An immediate corollary of this fact is that from now on we shall find the paradox of opposites ("neither perception nor non-perception") included in a plenum which transcends our understanding but has meaning at its own level. The Hindus call this level Savicara Samadhi in which there is direct knowledge and rapture ceases.
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4)
This level completes the release of the self, which is transcended. All feelings cease. For the individual merges with the numinous element, and the "perceiver is one with the perceived." Words and
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descriptions now begin to fail to express adequately and accurately the transcendent activities, and are no more suitable to the occasion than prototaxic grunts would be in response to a great work of art.
In Underhill's words (1960:367)"The Transcendent is perceived by contact not vision."
"Oh, wonder of wonders," says Eckhart, "when I think of the union the soul has with God." And Suso says: "In this rapture the soul disappears, yet not entirely; it acquires certain qualities of divinity, but does not naturally become divine." Plotinus puts it; "The soul neither sees nor distinguishes by seeing." "It ceases to be itself ... it belongs to God." "The perceiver is one with the thing perceived." "Ecstasy is a desire of contact ... and a striving after union."
Underhill (1960:416)lists the three marks of the state as:
1. absorption in the interests of the Infinite,
2. freedom and serenity flowing from consciousness of its authority,
3.a center of energy in the world and lives of others.
Meister Eckhart tells us:
The knower and the known are one . . . God and I we are one. . . . The eye with which I see God is the same as that with which He sees me.
Cognitive knowledge (like carnal knowledge) has in its finality become union.
4.77 Conclusion for Psychedelic Stage
We have now witnessed (on paper) what the Battle Hymn of the Republic so beautifully describes as "the Glory of the Coming of the Lord." Whether we prefer to view the Lord as a personal God, or the numinous element as impersonal, the glory and ecstasy are clearly there even when diluted by being recounted on the printed page instead of being actually experienced. This dawning of celestial light has occurred in six stages of grace:
1) the "Response Experience" in which the pre-glow is seen in nature transformed,
2) the Adamic or time Ecstasy in which the self is purified and the "doors of perception are cleansed,"
3) the Knowledge Ecstasy in which the psyche is illuminated through the sight of the numinous element and knowledge is infused,
4) the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree one, which contacts the numinous element and the self begins to disappear,
5) the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree two, which effects deeper contact with the numinous element and rapture ceases, finally
6) in the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree three, all feelings cease and the self merges with the numinous element.
To employ the language of tantricism (also used by some Christian mystics) the
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six graces portray:
1) the Bridegroom is present,
2) He is heard,
3) He is seen,
4) He is touched,
5) He penetrates,
6) He merges in complete union.
More austerely the Bhagavad Gita says of the mystical state, samadhi:
The self-controlled practitioner, while enjoying the various sense objects through the senses which are disciplined and free from likes and dislikes, attains placidity of mind. With the attainment of such placidity of mind, all his sorrows come to an end, and the intellect of such a person of tranquil mind soon withdraws itself from all sides, and becomes firmly established in the supreme reality.
Harding (1973:159) is definite about the advantages of the syntaxic mode of juncture between the conscious ego and the numinous element:
But if a man who has had an ecstatic experience succeeds in holding to his conscious standpoint and its values, and also retains the new influx that has come to him from the very depths of the psyche, he will be obliged to endure the conflict that two such widely different components will necessarily create, and will be compelled to seek for a means of reconciling them. This attitude is the only safeguard against falling under the spell of the nonpersonal daemonic powers of the unconscious; it is the modern way of following John's advice to "prove the spirits." If the effort is successful, an inner marriage will be consummated, the split between the personal and the nonpersonal part of the psyche will be healed, and the individual will become a whole, a complete being.
But perhaps the best metaphor is that of coming home. St. Augustine says: "Thou has made us for thyself and we are not happy until we dwell in thee." As Ruysbroeck says: "God is the home of the soul." One might quote Stevenson's epitaph as it so pertinently applies to the psyche:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea;
And the hunter home from the hill.
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE
While Christian mysticism pretty well stops with jhana 4, the last procedure of the psychedelic stage, the Hindus tell us of four higher
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jhanas which make up what we now call the unitive stage (previously, 1972, it was described as "illumination"). This is the fifth state of consciousness of the yogis, a state in which the altered state of consciousness is permanent. It is also a stage where all aspects of self have been transcended. It is consequently very difficult to say anything about it, as words are not adequate. Paradoxical statements abound as in most limit situations. (Christians who may be offended when such a mystic says "I am become God" may be comforted by recollecting that what the mystic is really trying to describe is an ineffable situation in which the semantic aspect becomes distorted.) What is apparent is that development has reached some higher level where there is even less of space, time, and "I-ness" and even more of the Absolute.
Laski (1962:63) quotes Poulain on the unitive state as:
1) a union that is almost permanent,38 persisting even amid exterior occupations;
2) transformation of the higher abilities (hence transforming union);
3) intellectual vision.
We will make a very brief description of the four higher jhanas, depending mostly on Goleman (1972).
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5)
Here there is incommunicable knowledge communicated, and "consciousness of infinite space" (Goleman, 1972).
We need not detain ourselves with vain quibbles about whether the mystic is absorbed into Deity or whether he retains his conscious individuality. Words are simply not relevant or adequate, for paradoxical opposites become possible simultaneously at such exalted levels. What has happened is that the "not-me" of the early numinosium has become the me, and in place of dissociation, incongruity, and discontinuity between the numinous element and the individual psyche, there has come association, congruity, and continuity.
Jung states in the Secret of Golden Flower:
Every statement about the transcendental ought to be avoided because it is a laughable presumption on the part of the human mind, unconscious of its limitations.
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6)
Here there is "objectless infinite consciousness" (Goleman 1972)
Younghusband quotes Ramakrishna's report of NirvakalpaSamadhi (1930:76):
In that rapture his senses and mind stopped their function. The body became motionless as a corpse. The universe rolled
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away from his vision. Even space melted away. Everything was reduced to ideas, which floated like shadows in the dim background of his mind, only the faint consciousness of "I" repeated itself in dull monotony. Presently that too stopped and what remained was transcendence alone. The soul had lost itself in the Self, and all ideas of duality, of subject and object had been effaced. Beyond speech, beyond experience, and beyond thought, he has experienced the Brahman - he has become the Brahman.
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7)
Here there is "awareness of 'no-thing-ness.'" As Underhill (1960:415) puts it:
The metaphysical mystic for whom the Absolute is impersonal and transcendent describes his final attainment of that Absolute as deification or the utter transmutation of the self in God.
While we are unable to describe in detail what is going on at these exalted levels, that does not mean that little is taking place. The real business of these high states is to make increasingly permanent and real the intimations of escape from the prison of time, space, and personality begun in the lower jhanas. For example, the Adamic Ecstasy (Jhana 0) with its time distortion starts the process of escape from time, but this feeling is experienced only in an ephemeral manner as if in trance: it is the first wiggle of the nascent butterfly in attempting to escape from the cocoon. Such transcendence becomes increasingly apparent at each higher level. Similarly the escape from the physical world of space is started at jhana 1, yet it is obvious from the descriptions of jhana 5, 6, and 7, that different aspects of this transcendence are being accomplished. Words may be inadequate to express the process of these high graces, and we may know little about what is going on, but we can intuit that the continued specifics of this transcendence are much involved.
Referring to Table XII, St. Teresa (Leuba, 1925:165) calls this unitive level Spiritual Marriage. Poulain (1912; Leuba, 1925:179) calls it Transforming Union. Patanjali (Eliade, 1969:100) calls the state Asampajnata Samadhi(samadhi without support), in which being and knowledge are undifferentiated, and thus the yogi becomes one with the deity. None of these authorities distinguish the unitive stage as having four jhanas, as does Goleman in Table VIII.
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8)
Here there is "neither perception nor non-perception" and it is obvious that words have now ceased to be of any use. It is also obvious
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that the individual psyche is now free of the triple prison of time, space, and personality, and to all effects appears to have merged with the numinous element, thus completing its journey through time, space, and personality and returning home.
While Goleman (1972) enters into a discussion of these levels, they are so far removed from most of us as to be a subject of only academic interest, even presuming that we can understand what is being said about them. It is probable that process is more important than position at these levels, and that no great good is served by the discussion of matters which we are really not ready for.
At this point it is suggested that Table X (Successive Integrations) again be inspected, remembering that a psychedelic vision is a psychological method of integration. Can it be that jhanas -1 and 0 (Response Experience and Adamic Ecstasies) are really openings onto the durative topocosm, that jhanas 1 to 4 (Knowledge Ecstasies) are openings to the entity level, and jhanas 5 to 8 involve archetypes? All of these levels would seem numinous to us, and humanity in general may have been very presumptive in the thought that any of the jhanas could reach to the Absolute.
It is important to attempt to restate for our Western minds, which are not used to the concept, that for the Hindu yogi, extreme concentration on an object becomes "grasping the object", first in knowledge of the essence of the object, and then in a "passage from knowledge to state," essentially becoming the object. Since the object is usually Isvara (the Lord), the result of this progression is deliverance. As Eliade 1969:96 explains:
The object is no longer known through associations. . . . it is grasped directly, in its existential nakedness. . . .Let us note that. . . . Samprajnata Samadhi is shown to be a "state achieved through a certain knowledge". . . . This passage from knowledge to state must be kept constantly in mind.... (it) leads to a fusion of all modalities of being. . . .
This absolute knowledge reveals that "knowledge and being are no longer discrete from each other." So the yogi who penetrates to Asamprajnata Samadhi (samadhi without support of objects) becomes one with the Deity. As Eliade 1969:114 remarks:
The human consciousness is eliminated ... its constituent functions having been reabsorbed into the primordial substance. . . . He is "the man delivered in life". He no longer lives in time, but in an eternal present, in the nunc stans that was Boetius' definition of eternity.
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If creation may be compared to the mathematical process of differentiation, then yogic escalation may be compared to the process of integration, for it returns to an undifferentiated state or function.35
If the thoughtful reader will now re-examine the relationship between subject and object, between noumenon and phenomenon, between the knower and the known, especially in sections 2.3 (Trance), 3.62 (Parataxic Mode: Image-Magic) and the present section in the Syntaxic mode, he will see the central thesis of this volume emerge: namely, that in the juncture between the individual and the general mind, duality is abolished, and through knowledge more and more complete, the one becomes the other.36 Notice that in section 4.2 (Tantric Sex), if the word know is used in the carnal sense, the knower and the known are fused in union. This integration or return to primordial unity is the finality of knowledge which in the end transmutes into being. Thus the dichotomy of symbol and referent, verba and res, thought and action, Shiva and Shakti is resolved by their transcendence of duality in union. "I am become God"; says Meister Eckhart, testifying truthfully to a mystic state which was as far beyond the comprehension of the churchmen who excommunicated him as the fact that complete knowledge can become complete being is above us. The omega point is reached when "the All shall know the All" for then All shall become All without differentiation. At every level, prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic, the upward escalation of humanity is a prefiguring of this "divine, far-off event."
But if we in the West have difficulty in grasping such a concept of absolute thought becoming absolute state, we should remember that the very same idea was proclaimed by none other than Socrates in the Symposium when he concluded:
This is the life which man should lead above all others in the contemplation of Beauty absolute. . . . Dwelling in that realm alone, he will bring forth not images of beauty, but Beauty itself, and so would become immortal and be the friend of God.
4.9 CONCLUSION
We have now come to the end of our analysis of the various procedures by which contact with the numinous element may be effected. It may be appropriate here to set down a number of observations and conclusions which have accrued during this investigation:
1. It should now be clear that the object of existence is the union of the individual mind with the General Mind. In order to achieve
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this we must escape from three illusions as one does in awakening from a dream. The first is the illusion of the reality of the physical world; the second is the illusion of the reality of time, and the third is the illusion of the reality of the separate self. There are three aspects to this quest, as there are three modes or levels of action. The first aspect is the freeing of the mind from the tyranny of percepts; the second is the escape into the eternal now, and the third is the loss of sense of self through the diffusion of the ego in developmental process. Since the three illusions are properties of the normal state of consciousness, liberation comes only through an altered state of consciousness.
2. The level of this liberation may be either prototaxic, parataxic, or syntaxic, through what we have popularly called trance, art, or creativity. At each level one escapes in some measure from the physical world, from time, and from self. The prototaxic vehicle which accomplishes this is trance. As we have seen, it produces spectacular liberation from the ordinary laws of physics, from time, and from selfhood, but at the price of the loss of conscious cognition and memorability, and the outletting of psychic energy at the kinesthetic level instead of at an aesthetic or cognitive one.
This disvaluing of the prototaxic manifestation of the numinous element in people is not that it is evil, but that it fails to meet the full potential of the human being. It is as de Condren suggested some centuries ago "the receiving of the effects of God and his holy communications in a very animal and carnal way."
3. The parataxic solution offers a bridge between prototaxic and syntaxic, containing some elements of both. Its highest outlet is in art where it offers an aesthetic ASC as a temporary freeing of the artist from physics, from time, and from selfhood. It has the advantage that there is feeling and some cognition involved, though at an iconic (image) representation, rather than at full cognition. The artist retains memorability, but is not always privileged to understand fully what he has accomplished. He is the channel rather than the author of the art. Nevertheless, the production of art objects means that the parataxic mode has social value in utility and beauty, in addition to increased individual benefit.
The domain of the numinousium contains an infinity of event-like elements, real in their realm, but only potential in ours (see Table X). From out this multiple infinity a single chain of events is realized in our space-time, by the reifying action of those conscious minds involved with the events. We speak of "event-like elements" in the numinousium rather than "events," for since that field transcends time as we know it (as ever growing later), our concept of an event
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as something that occurs in time, and our concept of one prior event causing a subsequent one, are merely the traces of a meta-event-like element which exists in the eternal now, and "which never was" (in our reality), but "is always happening" (in the eternal now). It is like the pattern in a textile made by the skillful weaving of the warp and woof by a master-weaver. All the thread colors are in all parts of the textile, but only those colors selected by the pattern of the weaver show forth on the surface.
4. Whereas prototaxic man is insulated from the numinous element by the necessity to enter an altered state of consciousness (wherein he generally loses consciousness, will, and memorability) in order to contact it, and whereas parataxic man is in a kind of semi-conductor position in which there is a fail-safe precaution built in on the energy discharge so that (at best or worst), he produces only images, - syntaxic man, with his knowledge of ortho-cognition and its derivative power, acquires corresponding responsibility. For his conscious mind is in contact with the numinous element, (or to put it the other way, it has reached the conscious level at last through his mind). Consequently, he has literally become a co-creator, and whatever he thinks, is liable to become an event in our space-time. With this awesome power goes the responsibility to purify his desires to the extended aspects of his environmental self, and to wish for nothing except that which is good and beneficial to others and to mankind.
5. We should become more aware of the curious symbiotic relationship between the ego and perceptual intake. The conscious ego appears to owe its stability to a narrow range of perceptual inflow; while the environment appears to owe its stability to continued cognizance by the totality of conscious egos. If perceptual intake is restricted, or expanded beyond certain limits, the normal state of consciousness as we know it is replaced by an altered state in which cognitive function is much reduced. A fish swimming in the sea regards the ocean as fixed and given; so we regard the normal state of consciousness. But it appears that in reality this normal state is a very "special state" which has been contrived in order for us to attend to perceptual events in space-time. Any considerable interference with that perceptual intake will shift consciousness into another state or mode. Such considerations suggest that not only is our normal state of consciousness a recent and specialized development, but that it is uniquely related to and sustained by the perceptual universe. If the rule works as well backward as forward, one wonders if the perceptual world of experience is not somehow related to and sustained by the collective consciousness which designs and observes it.
6. Let us look at the development of consciousness, that most
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significant aspect of life. Consciousness has an irresistible tendency to form; for every level of consciousness therefore, there is a vehicle, of which the physical body is only one example. Satprem (1968:307) quotes Sri Aurobindo on this journey of consciousness:
If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that is taking place in nature, then man, as he is, cannot be the last term in that evolution; he is too imperfect an expression of the spirit. Mind itself is too limited a form and instrumentation; mind is only a middle term of consciousness; the mental being can only be a transitional being.
The ordinary consciousness in the physical body tends to altered states of consciousness, and seems (as in the case of sleep) to require these intervals for proper rest and restoration. Tart (1971:3) says in this regard:
One of the most persistent and unusual aspects of human behavior . . . is man's dissatisfaction with the ordinary state of consciousness and the consequent development of innumerable methods of altering it.
The succession of conscious states is toward higher integration, not toward lower dissociation, toward more control of the environment, rather than less, and toward more grand perceptions of beneficence rather than toward the opposite. This principle is one of those facts (like the existence of the stars) which would be considered remarkable if we did not take it for granted. The process of integration in growth has the complementary virtues of being obvious in fact and transcendental in implication. It restores man from a reactive creature, differentiated in time to an integrated part of the noumenon. As Eliade 1969:199-200) says:
The ideal of yoga. . . . is to live in an eternal present, outside of time. The man, liberated in life, no longer possesses a personal consciousness. . . . but a witnessing consciousness, which is pure lucidity and spontaneity.
7. Regarding the three illusions:
a. The percepts of waking and dreaming (and hence all physical reality) are equally illusory, being governed by the generalized preconscious. This does not mean that the ordinary world of physical reality is without laws, but only that its supposed laws represent special cases of more general cosmic laws.
b. The consciousness of the ego as being bound in time and space
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and as being in one point in that space-time is equally illusory. It is a kind of fiction invented to give us the experience of cognition and development, and hence the scenario of life is a self-designed dream.
c. The idea of the ego itself as a separate bit of consciousness is also an illusion. Human life is but the history of the growth, development, and diffusion of this illusion. In order to encourage the gradual transformation of this process it is useful to encourage the enhancement of self-concept from its initial narrow sense of "my body" to its ultimate broad sense of "my world," passing through the intermediate stages of my possessions, my loved ones, my work, my associations, and my creations.
The physical world is of course not unreal, but it is only a special case of the larger vivency of the collective unconscious into which our individual egos are launched to gain the experience of cognition and will in a time and space-bound world. We are held prisoner in this restricted space-time with its physical laws by our sense of ego, reinforced by what we call the "normal" state of consciousness. (Actually it is a very special state of consciousness in which intelligence is particularized). But even in our ego-consciousness we can escape the restrictive laws of the physical world into the larger laws of the metaphysical world by passing into an ASC.
8. Lama Govinda (1966:17) points out that (since the syntaxic mode embraces the lower modes as well) ". . . the essential nature of words is neither exhausted by their present meaning, nor is their importance confined to this usefulness as a transmitter of thought" -for they express at the same time qualities which are not translatable into concepts. He continues that it is precisely this parataxic quality in poetry and oratory which stirs us so deeply. This statement by the lama is indicative of the fact that the three cognitive modes are "epigenetic" in Erikson's sense - that is, each succeeding one builds on the previous, and contains it, although emphasizing a new and emergent aspect. He again senses this hierarchy in stating (Ibid) "If art can be called . . . the formal expression of reality . . . then the creation of language may be called the greatest achievement of art."
The same intuitive grasp of the hierarchy of the three modes is evidenced by Satprem (1964:60) in his biography of Sri Aurobindo when he declares, speaking of growing enlightenment: "Once in possession of these . . . the seeker begins to know . . . things as they are, for he no longer catches the external signs, gestures, all that immured dumb show, nor the veiled face of things, but the pure vibration in each thing . . ."
Satprem (1964:55) says further:
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The task of the apprentice yogi ... is finally to become conscious in what men call death, for to the degree that we have been conscious in our life we shall become conscious in our death.
He (1964:103) quotes Sri Aurobindo as saying:
Matter is the starting point of our evolution; enclosed in it consciousness has gradually evolved; so the more consciousness emerges, the more it must recover its sovereignty and affirm its independence.
Finally he (1964:178) paraphrases Sri Aurobindo in stating:
Our sole problem is to lift ourselves to even higher planes by an individual evolution and our single life to transcribe and incarnate materially the truth of the plane to which we belong.
In a dream the perceptual events seem to be real, but actually are illusory, permuted about by unconscious forces, and the lucid dreamer knows that this is so, and that he is dreaming; in our normal state of consciousness, the percepts also seem to be real, but actually are equally illusory, being controlled and permuted by the collective unconscious, and the enlightened man like the lucid dreamer knows that this is so, and that he, too, is in reality in a dream. The dream state is to ordinary every-day "reality" as that reality is to ultimate reality; each state is the dream-state of the one above it.38
It appears that those who have successfully practiced the disciplines of the psychedelic stage and have reaped its enormous benefits fall into three classes. Curiously enough these categories are best delineated by another triple paradigm (Bruner's classification of concept formulation):
1. enactive (when the learning is in the muscles)
2. iconic (when the learning depends on signs [icons]
3. symbolic (when the learning has been completely integrated as a concept)
In the first two states, when the learning is less than fully complete symbolically, it can be approximated in the first instance through a system of body training (Hatha-yoga), and the following of ritual (such as Zen or alpha wave biofeedback), and in the second instance by recourse to icon-like archetypes which stand in the place of a concept which is too vague for complete cognitive formulation, but which indicates by a shadowy presence its substantive nature.
In the final instance, full psychedelic power is obtained, orthocognition is established, and the juncture of the conscious mind and the numinous element which presents itself as the collective preconscious
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brings not only creativity and serendipity, but literally the positive control of all aspects of man's self-concept from body-image outward to complete altruism. This "heaven on earth" "Omega point" is a literal re-establishment of the pristine Adamic estate, at present glimpsed only in ecstasies and visions. It is contained, of course, within the "durative topocosm" which exists throughout time, and waits only on man's developing mind to again bring it to physical manifestation. It is in this concept that psychology comes to aid man in understanding what was formerly called "the mystic path" in a more modern and useful way.
10. When we reflect on the enormous loss to the psyche when it leaves the state of the numinous element and dips into space-time and the existence of an individual ego, there must be some counter-vailing advantage to this perilous descent into mortality and finiteness. That advantage is clearly the cognitive consciousness, whose possession gives not only the opportunity to observe and experience nature, but also to co-design the world of experience. It is this latter opportunity which is the precious one, for it takes the conscious will to direct the numinous element to manifest events.
Let us remember that human life is but the projection of a greater individuality into the restricted cognitive ego, bound into space-time, where it takes a flight through the eight developmental stages, hopefully to return again to the Spacious Now, having completed the developmental cycle in ego- integrity and altruism. Presumably, this process is to gain the cognitive experience which this life affords as an added facet of the larger individuality. But consider some of the difficulties that can befall during this mortal interlude. For one thing, the ego may get enmeshed in mortality, arrested in the developmental process and fail to complete it, thus being consigned (as the Bardo Thodol tells us), to an endless recyclement until it breaks out of its circle. But there is an inverse peril for those who become developed. It is that the individuality, while still in its ego dream, will become enough enlightened to understand that the laws of physics which govern the space-time world are only a special case of the laws of metaphysics which govern the domain of the Eternal Now.
We have called this partial awakening orthocognition, and like the lucid dream (in which the dreamer knows he is dreaming) this insight gives the option of conscious use of the expanded laws of metaphysics to the still partly selfish ego-consciousness; in short the creative man gains psychedelic powers over his environment. The danger of not renouncing the world before we gain power to transcend it is that we will never want to renounce it at all, and that the
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individuality in the diminished form of an incompletely developed ego will trap itself in a garden of earthly delights. This is why true mystics would rather endure suffering than suffer the temptation of enjoyment. It is also why orthocognition, despite its wakening powers, should be used with wise restraint. For power corrupts, and we must be sure before we use it that our hearts and desires are pure. A worse fate than not getting one's desire is to get it and find it was the wrong thing to have in the first place.
11. At intervals during this ordinary-reality dream, certain aspects of the psyche gain the upper hand, so that the ego (either in trance or meditation) does not pay attention to ordinary reality. When this happens, the larger individuality takes over, and the person is not bound by the laws of ordinary reality. Hence, these people during this situation (which we call dissociation or trance), may walk on fire, levitate, prophesy, become clairvoyant and telepathic, and influence nature directly to name some of the more important examples. To be sure, in the prototaxic mode, these effects can be accomplished only by the temporary exclusion of the ego (which because of its reality-relating properties could not tolerate consciousness under these circumstances). But in the syntaxic mode when the ego expands to greater understanding, it can be allowed to remain though with various degrees of light dissociation. The proper function of altered states of consciousness, which allow the operation of the laws of non-ordinary reality, is to permit the conscious ego to design and order the natural events or ordinary reality in harmony with goodness.
It is the business of the ego to attend to ordinary reality; it is the business of other parts of the psyche to relate to non-ordinary reality, that is, the noumenon outside our space and time. While we may look at our ordinary reality as "real," it is actually the other way around, for it is non-ordinary reality that is the ultimate real. Actually the laws of physics in our ordinary reality are only a special case of the laws of metaphysics in non-ordinary reality, for our ordinary reality is but a special and restricted area in the larger domain, with special and restricted laws. During our little life here, the ego appears as an artifact of the eight developmental stages, rising in the first and setting in the last, in order to gain cognition and will in a space-time-bound situation, hopefully to return to the Eternal Now fortified with the cognitive experience gained here. But all the while the real existence of the individuality is in the Spacious Present of Non-ordinary reality.
12. Suppose it is determined that the best way for the numinous element (which appears to us in a present state of hypnotized and unindividualized subjective preconsciousness) to gain rational
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consciousness is to project a series of nascent individualized egos into time-space experience. There, hopefully, they develop, effloresce, and eventually return to the undifferentiated spirit fortified with the jeweled experience of initiation and selection in will and consciousness. (At least this is one way of looking at it for us in the dream.) This, then, is the experience which we call life.
Our egos are ephemeral, transitory events, which develop (like waves), effloresce, and diffuse, carrying back with them to the Spirit which originated them the precious experience of rational consciousness. This individualized process is carried out in eight stages of development, discovered by Erikson:
in stage 1, the ego is absent;
in stage 2, it rises and differentiates;
in stage 3, it explores love of self and parents;
in stage 4, it stops trying to make people and starts trying to make things;
in stage 5, it reaches its zenith of separatism in the adolescent identity- crisis;
in stage 6, it begins diffusion in love of the beloved and in creativity;
in stage 7, it further diffuses in parental succorance, and psychedelic experiences;
in stage 8, it sets in illumination, knowing that its destiny is to transcend self;
in stage 9, it is again absent.
The central issue in the development of man is the relationship between the generalized impersonal mind (which we call the preconscious) and the particularized conscious manifestation of it (which we call our individual consciousness). Each of these aspects of intelligence brings to their psychedelic union its own peculiar and characteristic powers, and each needs the support of the other. The generalized mind, which exists in a hypnotized impersonal state has genie-like powers over the environment including ourselves, but lacks conscious will and personality. The particular conscious mind has the regnancy of individual will, consciousness, and rational thought, but lacks the generalized powers, which can only be wisely and usefully released in a union of the two (which we call the psychedelic state).
In the unitive state, these two aspects are joined; and as in a closed electrical circuit, the current flows, empowering the human consciousness with quasi-divine authority, and humanizing the impersonal preconscious with the rationalizing of human conscious evaluation in place of the dark archetypes of the collective subconscious. To be sure, not all these methods are of equal value, for some allow for much more rational control than others, and it is this rational control of the process which is the continuum on which they should be evaluated.
To the extent that each individual human mind shares in the generalized preconscious, it becomes a creator, just as the generalized preconscious is. Therefore, every human has the potentiality of
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creation, not just of ideas but of actual reality; and from this it follows that whatever people believe in, becomes real in an existential sense. The enormous implications of this concept, (which among other things solves the problem of the origin of evil) are extremely important for each of us to understand, so that we do not, by negative thoughts, add to the sum total of evil in the world, but instead contribute to its opposite - the good.
The numinous element appears in the process of becoming, in the process of manifesting, in the process of building, toward what is to us a future event of perfection. All that precedes that dawn is prologue, including the dream world in which we live, for this can be conceptualized as no more than the numinous element trying out different facets of its power and energy through the medium of our individualized lives, much as a concert artist tries out themes before a symphony concert. But that rehearsal is a necessary part of its evolution, for when housed in us, it is able, if but in the blink of a man's lifetime, to blend its awesome power with the personal element which it alone lacks: it is able in a finite life to become complete, and to pre-figure the "far-off Divine event" of the poet, when all having been brought to perfection, the All will fully cognize the All. Thus each individual life is part of an eternal prologue in which the numinous element is being perfected and completed to a new and more glorious dawn. Thoreau, that rustic seer, said of this process: "That day is yet to dawn, for the sun is only a morning star!"
4.51 General Principles
If creativity is the intuitive level of syntaxic conceptualization of the junction between the ego and the numinous element, the first dawning of complete cognitive understanding we have called orthocognition. Orthocognition is the understanding of the principles enunciated in sections 4.1 on the collective preconscious and the "three illusions" especially those concerning the relationship between the individual ego and the numinous element, and their acceptance as a working hypothesis. Orthocognition is much like Maslow's B-cognition. It is a map of the psychic terrain, and an awareness that such relationships exist. It is the first step in the conscious control of the generalized preconscious. The word is compounded from "ortho" (correct) and cognition (in the Guilford sense) "to know that something exists."
Orthocognition involves the realization and visualization that numinous relationships exist. In other words, orthocognition is like having a correct map of the territory you are traversing in your mind; both would be helpful in not getting lost. While we have coined the word for use mainly with the great and overwhelming relationship between
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man's conscious ego and the numinous element, orthocognition in a smaller sense extends to any construct more useful than the one it replaces. Thus, the Copernician theory represents an advance of orthocognition over the Ptolemaic, Mendeleev's Periodic table an advance of orthocognition over the Four Elements theory, and the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court has many orthocognitive insights over his superstition-ridden friends.
The mere knowledge that something exists, and the correct visualization of one's relationship to it, does much to remove superstitions and fear, and to put one on the right track in thinking.
Orthocognition is no more than this, - a first step in the syntaxic realm. Orthocognition has two aspects: a) knowledge that the numinous element exists, and b) visualization of our relationship to it, and the consequences thereof. Knowledge that the numinous element exists may be expressed in the following hypothesis. It appears to us as:
1. An all-powerful, impersonal, immaterial force without characteristics or form and without will;
2. Existing outside of time and space, but available to us as a suggestible medium in a hierarchy of altered states of consciousness;
3. Having responsibility for the welfare and survival of all life generally, and specifically for the development and self-concept of man;
4. Receptive to cognitive will, as is a computer terminal when the proper order is encoded, and executing that will in a machine-like impersonal, uncognized, and sometimes unexpected manner, quickly, accurately, impartially, inexorably, appropriately, elegantly, and completely.
This is essentially the doctrine of the Perennial Philosophy which Happold (1970:20) summarizes as follows:
1. The phenomenological world is only a partial reality.
2. Man's nature is such that he can intuit the noumenon.
3. He can therefore develop and eventually identify with Divinity.
4. This process is the chief end of man's life.
Let us imagine that a man has been knocked unconscious and then thrown into a dark dungeon so that when he comes to he is in utter blackness. His successive levels of awareness will provide an analogy to our own developing orthocognition of ultimate reality.
At level zero the man is not conscious.
At level one he is barely conscious and does not know where he is.
At level two he is conscious of being somewhere in an enclosed space, but because of his concussion he does not have memory of whence he came.
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At level three he has explored his enclosed space and concluded that he is a prisoner within it; moreover he begins to remember that he was once outside.
Finally at level four, he recognizes the fact of his present condition, namely that he is a prisoner in a dungeon whose doors and dimensions he knows. He now remembers fully what freedom is like outside, and is beginning to formulate plans to escape.
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Orthocognition follows closely upon recognition of the illusory aspects of time, space, and personality. If the reader will refer to the section on the Three Illusions (4.13) he will see that orthocognition follows as a matter of course from this premise.
Knowledge is power, and orthocognitive knowledge of the relationship between the conscious mind and the numinous element leads at once to power. This power must (like all tools) be used carefully and wisely. Basically the power involves the orthocognitive recognition of our relationship to the numinous element, and our visualization of this relationship as "accomplish" (we use the untensed verb form to impress in the reader's mind that this action "take" place outside of time). Since the action "lie" outside of time in the "durative topocosm" (an infinity of potential events), our visualization of it as having occurred, occurring, and being about to occur provides the nourishment to make the seed idea germinate and manifest in the physical world of space/time. (Notice how similar is the action of the Hopi Indian in the rain dance, when he performs a similar enactive representation to make manifest a hoped-for-future event which is within his heart.)
The application of our relationship to the numinous element, and the consequences thereof, may be visualized in strengthening self-concept in seven vital areas:
1. my body and physical health
2. my wealth and possessions
3. my loved ones
4. my work and avocation
5. my interests, associations, and social relationships
6. my creations, my gifts to the society
7. my state, nation, culture, and world, especially regarding peace and prosperity.
Each of these areas represents an expansion of self-concept away from egocentricity in the direction of freedom and altruism. Together they cover the totality of self-concept which in turn (since it represents the ego's view of itself) is directly enriched and nourished by the
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numinous element. Hence, as a consequence of our relationship to this impersonal element, we should endeavor each day to visualize whatever aspect of self-concept we want to actualize as already existing now in an ideal state, and needing only our desire and will to become manifest. In other words, this part of orthocognition aids us to bring about the necessary environmental conditions for growth.
Let us be honest enough to admit that orthocognition is a low form of syntaxic conceptualization, for it is tinged with personal and selfish will. This constitutes a danger, especially that we shall be responsible for willing some event which indirectly causes trouble to ourselves or our neighbor. (No responsible person would ever be guilty of directly willing such an event.) We should endeavor to purify our minds from selfish purpose, before such an attempt and ever try to ascend the self-concept scale in visualizing as many concrete conditions at the high end as at the low end. Such scruples also suggest that orthocognition is best practiced along with meditation, which may be much more effective in removing the selfish ego. It is important to realize, however, that orthocognition is distinct from meditation, and that it has a legitimate function of promoting positive reinforcement for our continuing this growth. The laborer in the vineyard has a right to his pay, and we have a right as we progress to be protected and made comfortable in our daily lives (though we must not allow comfort to degenerate into sloth).
While the creative aspects of the mind (which indicate it is part of the noumenon) embrace all nature, the relative ease with which the power to affect the environment may be exercised, is expressed in a hierarchy of self concept going outward from the body image through the phenomenal and environmental selves to successively embrace "my body, my possessions, my relations with my loved ones, my work, my interests, my relations, my creations and my world." The easiest of these to affect and to change is of course, "my self-concept," then come events, things, and finally other persons, society, and the universe.
It is important that we understand the uses and limitations of orthocognition. As one of the initial forms of syntaxic representation of the numinous element, it represents a way station to aid in our developmental progress, not a form to be cherished forever. Specifically it has the disadvantage of looking at the universe in terms of the welfare of the personal ego or self-concept and of the modification of that environment for the benefit of the personal ego. Since the concept of the personal ego is itself an illusion, one may well ask what if any benefits are gained by compounding an illusory process. The interim benefits are that the self-concept develops through
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orthocognition from a lesser "my" to a greater "my" (as in going along the hierarchy from "my body" to "my world"). This gradual movement from egocentricity to freedom is truly developmental and encourages ego-diffusion; it also has the advantage of helping the ego to feel secure during such an operation; the reduction of anxiety is a helpful step in such a progression. The danger is the usual one in developmental progress, namely that any one stage may prove so tempting that one willingly remains there instead of pushing on. If there be two roads to reality, one through the desert of self-denial and mortification and the other in a milk-and-honey land of delight, the austere path offers less temptation to dally than the comfortable one. The stages of self-concept interest in orthocognition are stages to be gradually surmounted, for every "my" that ties the ego to ownership or association delays development. The wise man, therefore, will realize orthocognition for what it is, an interim device, particularly suitable for us westerners for the gradual transcendence of self-concept by applying it more and more to the environmental self, and less and less to the personal self.
The power of orthocognition is akin to the power of the dreamer in the lucid dream. Both help us become aware that we are dreaming and that the dream world we inhabit in the daytime is not more real than the dream world we inhabit asleep. Since both are dreams, we may expect that mental causes may change the percepts we "see" awake just as they change the dream percepts. It is this awareness that the perceptual world is not "loose and separate," but a product of collective consciousness and hence, changeable by mental means that is the freeing orthocognitive construct.
We have discussed orthocognition as if it were always a deliberate and conscious attempt at control of the environment through visualization in the syntaxic mode, but we must note for completeness that there are many instances of such visualizations in other modes in which, without realizing that he is doing so, the individual sets in motion the same kind of archetype or mental picture which eventuates in a manifest material state or event.
For the human mind is not merely endowed (as part of the noumenon) with the power to cognize nature, it is also endowed with the power to design nature. The end objective of consciousness is not mere experience but reification. Whether we realize it or not, our thoughts affect the plastic numinous element which tends (unless prevented by other thoughts) to transform these thoughts into events. This is the secret of the self-fulfilling prophecy, for what a man can predict or visualize is (to use Koko's words) "As good as done already." As Pearce (1973:11) states: "Thinking is a shaping force in reality."
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Life is like being stunned then put into a strait jacket then dropped from a great height with a parachute. The problem is one first has to come to, then get out of the straitjacket, then activate the parachute. When consciousness is imprisoned in space, time, and personality, it is put into this position. Orthocognition is the first dawning of consciousness that it is in this fix (i.e. like the lucid dreamer that he is having a dream). Then the problem is to get out of the situation and not be beguiled by all of its allurements. Like Apollo, we are set in a great chariot for a swing through the heavens. But will consciousness reap the regard of this journey through space and time, or will there be only the usual Pussycat's report?
Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visitthe Queen.
Pussycat, pussycat what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse underherchair.
When consciousness is encased in creaturehood, it is very difficult not to be about the business of the creature. So after all the effort of going to London we may content ourselves with frightening a little mouse, rather than seeing the Queen.
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Blofeld (1970:84) calls orthocognition "visualization" and says of it:
It produces quick results by utilizing forces familiar to man only at the deeper levels of consciousness ... wherewith mind creates and animates the whole universe; ordinarily they are not ours to command, until the false ego is negated or unless we employ yogic means to transcend its bounds. . . .
Since orthocognition involves a realization that the ego rather than being the central aspect of life is something to be transcended, it requires a radical switch in thinking. This from I-thinking" to "not-I-thinking" is made more difficult by the construction of our grammar. But since we can also rise by that which appears to cause our fall, we can deal with this problem grammatically. We can express the triple integral of the ego mathematically by SSSI . We can hence use the shortened symbol SI to mean the transpersonal noumenon; so that when we say "I visualize," we are more accurate to say (or write) "SI visualize," since only SI is capable of bringing the visualization to manifestation. (see Table X, page 252)
It is sometimes loosely stated than an action taken in the body (orthocognition or a physical ritual, see section 3.5 last 5 paragraphs)
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activates a cosmic source, but this is an inaccurate rendition of the event. What happens is that the SI situation takes place outside of time (and hence eternally and recurrently in time), and the calling forth of the function outside of time hence projects the manifestation into time in the here and now and in the future. This process which transforms thought into action can be performed syntaxically through orthocognition by the SI procedure which works in the durative topocosm. It can also be accomplished parataxically through the ritual repetition of a formula which sets up a vibration or cycle. Both processes are like turning on a tap to release a flow of water. They do not produce the water which flows; they merely release it or bring it from posse into esse.
To program one's dreams and to program one's (dreaming awake) normal life are very similar functions. One involves creativity and the other healing; both are orthocognitive. For in both it is SI which brings design to an otherwise chaotic state.
The stages of consciousness in man go from essential animal consciousness (mere reaction to stimuli) to self-consciousness (normal formal operations and some insight) to orthocognition (with its understanding that SI is imprisoned in time, space, and personality). Finally there comes cosmic consciousness which is at first transient in the psychedelic stage and continual in the unitive.
Bruner (1962) is only one of many who have noticed that on logical grounds scientists postulate "empty categories" (like the Hamiltonian quarternions), and then science discovers contents for the category. Teilhard de Chardin pointed out that man's imagination is a creative process which carries on the universe, and Elaide (1959) sees man as free to intervene in the ontological constitution of the universe. Polanyi (1958) speaks of the "indwelled" idea which gestates in material progress. Despite these seers, most of us do not at all appreciate the power of the logos of cognitive syntaxic process in the creative process of the universe, although we have been told authoritatively, "In the beginning was the Word."
Since orthocognition is a form of mental dimensional orientation, it is related to the structure of intellect factor of spatial visualization. The ability to orient oneself in three dimensional space can be developed into the ability to orient oneself outside of space and time, and hence to possess the means for transcending the illusion they present. In the same manner as the lucid dreamer who knows that he is dreaming (and hence gains the capacity to will what he dreams), the person who is orthocognitively aware of his orientation toward ultimate reality also comes to possess the capacity to design his life (to will what he "dreams" awake). A curious corollary of this relationship of
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orthocognition to spatial visualization is that the next metaphysical Aufklarung is much more likely to come from scientists, engineers, and architects (all high in spatial relations) than from ministers, social workers, or physicians. The religious man of the future is much more likely to be in the mold of an Einstein or a Heisenberg than of the Pope or a Protestant equivalent.
Since orthocognition represents a correct view of man's relationship to the universe, or cognitive competence in advance of affective feeling, it is in effect an example of a "reverse dysplasia" (Gowan, 1974:168-70)in which the cognitive development leads the affective. These reverse dysplasias, while rare except in the able, offer an unusual opportunity for the cognitive area to "pull" emotional areas into balance with it. They also, in the case of orthocognition at least, "telegraph" the secret of psychedelia which in the past used to be revealed to mystics during an ecstatic grace. This is the meaning of the ending paragraph The Development of thePsychedelic Individual (Gowan, 1974:251) which indicates that the psychology now has the cognitive capacity to reveal what only mystics could sense affectively.
4.52 Is Orthocognition Moral?
Magic has been defined as the use of universal powers for personal interest and it cannot be denied that orthocognition represents a syntaxic form of magic. Honesty, therefore, compels us to think very carefully whether or not it is a licit procedure. We confess candidly that no other issue in this volume has given us the concern that this one has. The issue is very grave, for if orthocognition is proscribed, then all forms of self-help including the therapies-ministries-religions of auto and mental suggestion, Christian Science, Religious Science, positive thinking, demonstration versus environment, prosperity metaphysics, Coueism, New Thought, hypnosis, Autogenic Training, autohypnosis, psychosynthesis, personality culture, and mesmerism are also illicit.25
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Having reviewed the arguments pro and con in detail, it is our feeling that orthocognition is within the modern view of man's increasing control over himself and his environment. The fission of the atom represents a powerful tool which can be used for good or evil; but no one would suggest that we erase this knowledge from our culture on that account. A similar statement could be made in behalf of orthocognition. If man continues to grow in knowledge, he must continue to grow in the discretion to use that power wisely.
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Under the restraints which have been set down in this section, we believe that orthocognition may be innocently employed.
In such a grave issue, we would do well to find more authoritative sources, which fortunately are at hand. Satrem (1968:274) points out that the saint Sri Aurobindo, far from rejecting power, (even though it may often be misused), on the contrary declared that the concept of power - Shakti - is the key to his yoga:
It is a mistake ... to condemn Power as in itself a thing not to be accepted or sought because naturally corrupting or evil. ... Power is divine, and put here for divine use.
4.53 Orthocognition Compared
While orthocognition represents a "new" syntaxic procedure, it is not that original. It bears unmistakable relationships to Coueism, Christian Science, New Thought, Religious Science, Positive Thinking, Autogenic Training, Psychosynthesis, and several other movements. In addition, however, there are some earlier views which have such striking similarities as to require special attention.
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The first exhibit is the thought of Thomas Troward (1909) which has been somewhat explicated in Chapter 1.
Troward (1909:85) believed that it was perfectly possible to program the preconscious (which he called "subjective mind") from a completely rational state of consciousness without need of dissociation or any altered state. Since he conceived the preconscious to be impersonal, and existing in a subjective hypnotic state, it had no desire of its own, and consequently it waited for us to make up its mind for it. He postulated that:
1. There is emotion in the conscious mind which gives rise to
2. Desire;
3. Judgement determines if we shall externalize this desire, if approved,
4. The will directs the imagination to form the necessary prototype;
5. The clutch of the conscious mind is allayed by sleep, hypnotism, satori, or some altered state of consciousness, during which the prototype is transferred from the individual to the general mind (from the personal to the impersonal) (from the conscious to the preconscious); the imagination thus centered now in the preconscious creates the mental (spiritual) nucleus;
6. This prototype in the preconscious is a fact of reality, and, hence,
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acts as a center around which the forces of attraction begins to work so that
7. An inward and spiritual fact becomes manifested in outward and perceptible form.
We conceive this process to take place much as a master print in xeroxing has its image transferred via a light beam to a succession of copies of which it is the prototype. The key aspect is the juncture of the conscious desire with the collective preconscious. While it is evident that such a juncture can more easily take place during an altered state of consciousness (such as a hypnopompic state), Troward seems to feel that it can also be affected, at least by some, in the ordinary state.
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Our second exhibit is an example of the magic of a primitive culture which has a number of similarities to orthocognition.
Max Freedman Long (Dane, 1974) after a long study of Hawaiian Kahuna magic beliefs determined that their system involved three souls for man:
a) the uhane, the spirit that talks (the left hemisphere) conscious mind
b) the unihipili, the "low" mind that does not talk, but makes pictures (the right hemisphere) or the unconscious
c) the aumakua, the parental spirit or spirit guardian (the preconscious -this is the God within man). The form of consciousness that performs the miracles: called by Hawaiians "the High Self."
The Huna belief is that the three spirits are encased by three shadowy bodies composed of a sticky substance called aka. Pranic energy is called mana; it is manufactured by the physical body and is under the control of the low self. It is sent to the higher selves by means of the silver cord which connects the etheric bodies (the aka). For healing much more mana is needed by the High Self and this is accumulated and sent to the High Self through breathing exercises. So for healing the Kahuna makes a mental picture of things as they should be and sends this picture with mana to the High Self. In Hawaiian the word for prayer is hou; this word also means to "pant or breathe heavily." The Hawaiians conceive the High Self to be both male and female and a quasi-sex union between these two aspects creates the new conditions which result in healing. Telepathy, according to the Kahunas, is made up of pictures sent by the low self to the high self. Hence, telepathy and prayer are very similar. It is very interesting that the Kahunas insist on this non-talking property
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of the low self in view of the fact that modern psychology has found out that the right hemisphere cannot talk, but is intelligent nevertheless and that it also may have paranormal abilities through the use of pictures and visualization.
4.54 Orthocognition as Healing
The principle of orthocognition, plus the two examples we have given of it lends itself immediately to the application of healing. One might have said "psychic healing" indicating that healing is a kind of siddhi (see section 4.154), but it is becoming abundantly evident that healing is something natural and a power possessed by almost everyone. The differences between the everyday aspects of healing, and the esoteric aspects of levitation, for example, are so great as to require separate consideration, in this section, apart from the rarer siddhis which appear to require some kind of ASC. For healing does not appear to require an ASC. It does require orthocognition, and it seems to be some kind of twin to creativity.
The relationship between this transcendental union of the individual and general minds, and psychic healing, is beautifully stated by Green et al. (1971b):
As a final word, it seems increasingly certain that healing and creativity are different pieces of a single picture. Both Swami Rama and Jack Schwarz, a Western Sufi whom we recently had a chance to work with, maintain that self healing can be performed in a state of deep reverie. Images for giving the body instructions are manipulated in a manner very similar to that used by Assagioli for personality and transpersonal integration, as in his Psychosynthesis. But this "manner" of manipulation of images is also the same as that in which we find ideas being handled creatively (by two pilot subjects) for the solution of intellectual problems. What an interesting finding! Creativity in terms of physiological processes means then physical healing, physical regeneration. Creativity in emotional terms consists then of establishing, or creating, attitude changes through the practice of healthful emotions, that is, emotions whose neural correlates are those that establish harmony in the visceral brain, or to put it another way, emotions that establish in the visceral brain those neurological patterns whose reflection in the viscera is one that physicians approve of as stress resistant. Creativity in the mental domain involves the emergency of a new and valid synthesis of ideas, not by deduction, but springing by "intuition" from unconscious sources.
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The entrance, or key, to all these inner processes we are beginning to believe, is a particular state of consciousness to which we have given the undifferentiated name "reverie." This reverie can be approached by means of theta brainwave training in which the gap between conscious and unconscious processes is voluntarily narrowed, and temporarily eliminated when useful. When that self-regulated reverie is established, the body can apparently be programmed at will and the instructions given will be carried out, emotional states can be dispassionately examined, accepted or rejected, or totally supplanted by others deemed more useful, and problems insoluable in the normal state of consciousness can be elegantly resolved.
Perhaps now, because of the resurgence of interest in self exploration and in self realization, it will be possible to develop a synthesis of old and new, East and West, prescience and science, using both yoga and biofeedback training as tools for the study of consciousness. It is also interesting to hypothesize that useful parapsychological talents can perhaps be developed by use of these reverie-generating processes of yoga and biofeedback. Much remains to be researched, and tried in application, but there is little doubt that in the lives of many people a penetration of consciousness into previously unconscious realms (of mind and brain) is making understandable and functional much that was previously obscure and inoperable.
It is also interesting to recollect that there seem to be three kinds of healers:
(a) those whose healing power is emitted through the hands,26 prototaxically
(b) those whose healing power depends upon images formed in the right high hemisphere (such as the "low mind" of the kahunas) in which there is a parataxic level of effect; and
(c) those whose healing power is operated syntaxically, through the word (Jesus: "Stretch forth thy hand," Luke, 6:10).
We do not include acupuncture as an aspect of psychic healing because it appears to us to be another school of medicine which deals with the adjustment of energies in the etheric body via the chakra centers. That this operation depends upon a body of knowledge and belief which is not compatible with western medicine as presently practiced is not perjorative in our view; it simply says something about Western thought in general, which is that whether religious, nationalistic, or scientific, it is insufferably arrogant. There is little to choose between the Catholic dictum that it is the only true religion;
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the British Empire view that it is the only true state, and the view of modern medicine that it is the only true prophylactic. Thus, despite the availability of a good deal of research evidence to the validity of acupuncture, we shall not examine it, as outside the scope of this investigation.
It is suggestive and interesting that in addition to the ancient tradition of spiritual healing within the Christian Church (such as "laying on of hands,") and its modern emphasis (in such religions as Christian and Religious Science), there should be at the present time, such a tremendous interest in psychic healing particularly by those in the more "respectable" sciences. Thus in a convention sponsored by the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine (Tiller, 1972) one finds twelve of fourteen speakers with their doctorates. The work done in this area by the Greens of the Menninger Clinic, Professor Tiller of Stanford, Sister M. J. Smith, the biologist, Thelma Moss, the UCLA Kirlian photographer, and A. Puharich is well known and testifies to the academic prestige of the researchers. The literature in this area alone is so voluminous and so recent, that we cannot hope to notice it systematically, but is has progressed from a mere examination and cataloguing of effects to the development of theory, some of which promises to open the doors of our perception.
Let us particularly note that while orthocognitive healing has some similarities to the prototaxic healing enjoyed in trance "heat" and in shamanistic phenomena, it is very much different in the fact that it is accomplished in a normal state of consciousness, and seems indeed, to be more like the intuitive relationship with the preconscious which characterizes creative openness than it does even with the higher forms of ecstasy which we shall later note.
As we noted in section 4.154, the essence of psychic healing is a speed-up in time of what would normally be accomplished in a much longer period. What we are really witnessing, therefore, is the acceleration of chemical reactions. If ultimate reality exists outside of time, and if orthocognition is the dawning recognition of this fact, the consequent psychic healing as an accelerated physical process would follow immediately upon this principle.
4.6 MEDITATION (Jhana -2)
4.61 General Information
Meditation represents the last procedure and the highest level of the creative stage. Unlike all other procedures, it involves a conscious effort to open the doors to the preconscious, through clearing and
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tranquilizing the conscious mind. Meditation is not prayer, for it does not involve importuning an external Deity. As Christian Humphreys (1968:6) remarks: "At best the method of prayer is a yearning of the heart; meditation, on the other hand, reorients the mind. . . . "
The basic principle involved in the use of meditation as an enhancement to self-awareness and as a stimulation to growth is its syntaxic contact with the numinous element; this contact involves:
(1) the manifestation of the numinous in a positive and controlled form,
(2) the "entasy"27 (or full normal consciousness) of the ego, which results in the benefit of learning from the experience, and
(3) the tranquilization of the cogitative aspects of the mind, so that one gradually becomes conscious of its "openness" rather than its "connectedness", and of ideas flowing into it, rather than ideas being churned up by it.
Meditation sets one consciously on the path of yoga, or union with the numinous, but since meditation is a transitional procedure between the creative and the psychedelic stage, the motivations of the person embarking upon it experience subtle and often rapid changes. The Indian saint Sri Aurobindo understood this yogic development well. Satprem (1968:34) quotes Sri Aurobindo as follows:
One may start a process of one kind or another for the purpose which would normally mean a long labor, and be seized, even at the outset, by a rapid intervention of manifestation of Silence with an effect all out of proportion to the means used at the beginning. One commences with a method but the work is taken up by a Grace from above. . .
Satprem (Ibid.) continues:
... yoga awakens automatically ... a whole gamut of latent faculties ... which can do for us that of which we are normally incapable. (Quoting Sri Aurobindo) "One has to have the passage clear between the outer mind and something in the inner being ... for ... the yogic consciousness and its powers are already there within you," and the best way of clearing is to make the mind silent. We do not know who we are and still less what we are capable of.
Satprem (1968:35-6) points out that meditation is only the beginning of the psychedelic life:
But the practice of meditation is not the true solution of the problem (though it be quite necessary at the beginning to give the push) because we shall attain perhaps a relative silence, but
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at the very moment we put our foot outside our room or our retreat we shall fall back. . . .
The extra need is for "a complete life" so that we can practice silence "in the street," and become "oriented."
While there are many specific techniques of meditation, they all appear to have some common elements. The key factors facilitating meditation appear to be:
1) relaxing the body, and rendering the mind insensible to it by:
a) sitting upright in a relaxed posture,
b) shutting the eyes,
c) being undisturbed in a quiet, shuttered room,
d) controlling the breath so that one breathes more slowly and shallowly;
2) relaxing the mind, and bringing it to an altered state of consciousness by:
a) use of a mantra (or repetition of the same words, sound or tone),
b) exclusion of distracting thoughts from the mind,
c) developing a simple "awareness" without being consciously attracted to any particular idea or wish.
The aim is a "relaxed awareness," but in the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one should perform meditation "without expectation of any results," not in the anticipation of a psychedelic experience. Or as another teacher has put it, "we don't evaluate the results of meditation by our subjective experience, but in the happiness and efficiency of our lives." The benefits of meditation are stressed as relaxation and rest, rather than as an indubitable pathway to the nature-mystic-peak experience, (although such experiences may occur). Aldous Huxley (1945:283) talks about a very similar technique of the Christian mystics in which prayer begins with mental concentration on Christ's passion, and then passes from it to the formless substratum. He notes a similar experience from the Tibetian Book of the Dead:
Whosoever thy tutelary deity may be, meditate upon the form for much time - as being apparent, yet non-existent in reality, like a form produced by a magician.. . Then let the visualization of the tutelary deity melt away from the extremities, till nothing at all remaineth visible of it; and put thyself in the state of the Clearness and the Voidness - which thou canst not conceive as something - and abide in that state for a little while. Again meditate upon the tutelary deity; again meditate upon the Clear Light; do this alternately. Afterwards allow thine own intellect to melt away gradually, beginning from the extremities.
Huxley (1945:290) also quotes Ashvaghosha on the Way of Tranquillity as follows:
Those who are practising 'stopping' should retire to some quiet
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place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek to tranquillize and concentrate the mind. While one may at first think of one's breathing, it is not wise to continue this practice very long, nor to let the mind rest on any particular appearances, or sights, or conceptions, arising from the senses.
All kinds of ideation are to be discarded as fast as they arise; even the notions of controlling and discarding are to be got rid of. One's mind should become like a mirror, reflecting things, but not judging them or retaining them. Conceptions of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Conceptions arising from the senses and lower mind will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. The same is true of conditions outside the mind; they should not be allowed to engross one's attention and so to hinder one's practice. The mind cannot be absolutely vacant, and as the thoughts arising from the senses and the lower mind are discarded and ignored, one must supply their place by right mentation. The question then arises: what is right mentation? The reply is: right mentation is the realization of mind itself, of its pure undifferentiated Essence. When the mind is fixed on its pure Essence, there should be no lingering notions of the self, even of the self in the act of realizing, nor of realization as a phenomenon. . . .
A number of mechanical devices have been used to secure a "free-floating" state which is conscious but passive, and which gives attention inward to thought processes as they form in the mind, and attempts to go beyond them into pure consciousness. This requires narrowing the attention, restricting sensory input, and cutting down on the inpouring of random stream of consciousness ideas. Techniques used to bring about this state may involve chanting, giving attention to one's breathing, gazing into a mandala (sacred picture), mentally repeating a mantra, concentrating on a koan, or other similar process all designed to fix and tranquilize the attention.
Some systems such as Zen are rather prescriptive about methods used to induce what Christian mystics would call their "Prayer of Quiet," while others, such as Transcendental Meditation are quite permissive. Such differences suit different temperaments, and all may be useful under various circumstances. Some such as hatha yoga and Nichiren Shoshu are mainly somatic, while others, such as raja yoga are mainly cerebral. But all of these methods attempt to deal with quieting the constant inrush of distracting thoughts and percepts
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which appear to sustain the normal state of consciousness, and without which it lapses into sleep, or another ASC.
There seem to be two levels to meditation which blend into one another. In the lower level, meditation is an effort to avoid distractions such as the stream-of-consciousness babble. The slightest external noise disrupts; as John Donne (1626) said:
I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call and invite God and his angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, or the whining of a door.
In the higher level, these distractions cease; meditation is a joy, and "the Prayer of Quiet," (jhana-1), is reached. Meditation hence becomes the bridge between the creative and the psychedelic stages.
Barbara Brown (1974) believes that while alpha biofeedback is not necessary for the advanced meditator, it may be useful for the beginner, in helping him to track onto alpha (which of course prevents distractions). Nideffer (Shapiro and others 1972:167-185) in a comprehensive review of alpha and the development of human potential including meditation, agrees with Brown, and concludes that biofeedback may have an important future in "maximizing psychological functioning" at all levels of the creative stage. Green of the Menninger clinic (ibid:152ff) finds biofeedback useful in both healing and creativity after a series of experiments. The net effect of all this testimony is that biofeedback is a helpful procedure for advancement in the syntaxic mode, useful for establishing both creativity and meditation.
For the purpose of advancement in the syntaxic mode, Progoff (1968) advocates the keeping of what he calls an "intensive journal." It is a psychological notebook, designed "to help achieve an experience crucial in the process of personal growth", namely the initiation of an "enlargement of consciousness." This process helps the individual to reach "a direct contact with the creative principle which is at the core of life." Besides the daily log there are meditational and orthocognitive experiences designed both to accomplish therapeutic "unstressing" and positive growth toward self- actualizing behavior. Progoff counsels that the intensive journal should be used in concert with group workshops, etc.
Constituted as structure for the growth process, the intensive journal is a directed log of areas where the individual is to write daily. The areas are as follows:
1. Describe the characteristics of the most recent period of your life including emotions, dreams, unusual events, feelings.
2. Same analysis of the present day.
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3. Personal sections to include dialogue with people, dialogue with books and other works, group experiences, dialogue with events, dialogue with the body.
4. Depth contact (ways of gaining access to one's personal potentials): dreams, dream enlargements, hypnagogic imagery and fantasy, extensions of same, inner dialogues;
5. Life history log or rememberings and recapitulations: stepping stones, intersections, Now (and the Future). As one keeps reevaluating the choice points (stepping stones) one finds that they move from the exterior events to inner events, and change markedly in a process of expansion.28
Meditation can be considered as a take-off point beyond ortho-cognition because it readies the individual for the cognitive experience of altered states of awareness or consciousness.
Meditation allows the person, through contemplative self awareness or "going within" to more directly experience his higher self nature. Awareness of the numinous element is enhanced during the meditative process. And the relationship of the higher self to the numinous element is further realized, where the paradox of subject and object can later be transcended in a unity of "being." 29
In considering the following forms of meditation it should also be realized that, in some of them, this process of continued experience of higher levels of consciousness is the only means of true self realization. It is considered to be the means of transcending the illusion of separateness at ordinary states of consciousness, experiencing the inner reality of higher self and moving upward to essence and unity of "being." We return again to the merging of higher self and the numinous element beyond time, space and personality, to a full cognition of the all by the all-the unity of Atman and Brahman, the attainment of Buddha nature.
4.62 Nichiren Shoshu29
Nichiren Shoshu is a sect of Buddhist philosophy based upon an interpretation of the Lotus Sutras. The process of meditation in Nichiren Shoshu is practiced by the individual alone or in group meetings, or both. The recommended length of time according to its practitioners is two hours per day.
Meditation begins with a ceremonial practice of candle lighting, then chanting to the Gohonzon is begun. The Gohonzon is considered to have been divinely inspired when it was written and endowed with great power. This power can be brought into effect for the benefit of the chanter through faith and continued chanting. It is claimed that the laws of cause and effect which operate at all levels of existence
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are brought into play through chanting. Even though the words chanted repeatedly are in Japanese and are not cognitively understood, it is felt that because they are in tune with a universal energy force and are used in conjunction with belief in the Gohonzon that the results will be beneficial.
In terms of human growth, the philosophy is that chanting will awaken the higher self nature in man, regardless of his initial intent in chanting, and that he will improve as a person to higher levels of self awareness and cognitive growth. It is also stressed that the individual will be happy due to receiving benefits from chanting, and that world peace can be achieved through expanded individual happiness.
Even though discipline through regular practice of chanting is stressed, there is no emphasis upon a guru for each student nor upon asceticism of any kind. In fact just the opposite is true, for the stress is on joy and happiness attained through the receipts of benefits from chanting. Nichiren Shoshu appeals on the average to a younger group of followers than one might find in Zen or Vedanta for example. This may be due to the fact that the positive feelings connected with the solidarity of the organization, and the athletic strivings for world peace, help provide a channel for the outlet of energy and the need for belonging characteristic of adolescents. It may also provide a reinforcement of positive identity for those who have not yet internalized the identity issue at the higher level of self.
Compared with other forms of meditation, Nichiren Shoshu appears to resemble the syntaxic procedure of orthocognition. There is more emphasis on a kind of visualization of positive conditions, surrounding and affecting self-concept. This action is understandable for adolescents who at the time of the identity crisis are not perhaps ready for the higher psychedelic states of consciousness. Like other forms of meditation, then, Nichiren Shoshu is a preparation for mystic experience. The beneficial effects of chanting as facilitating "unstressing" (section 2.23) should not be minimized.
4.63 Transcendental Meditation
"Transcendental Meditation is a systematic procedure of turning the attention inward toward the subtler levels of thought until the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of thought and arrives at the source of the thought." "TM is a purely mental technique practiced individually every morning and evening for fifteen to twenty minutes at a sitting. It requires no alteration of life style, diet, etc. and as a technique of direct experience rather than a religion or philosophy, it does not require belief in the efficacy of the practice
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nor an understanding of the underlying theory. Wallace and others (1971) have characterized it as a "wakeful hypometabolic physiologic state," i.e., a state of restful alertness. TM is apparently a universal human faculty, not requiring any particular intellectual or cognitive facility other than the ordinary ability to think. It is easily learned by anyone in about six hours of instruction, spread out over four consecutive days from a Maharishi-trained teacher. Once learned, it can be continued without the necessity for additional instruction.*
Another "American" aspect of the packaging of Transcendental Meditation is the great interest its exponents have shown in psychological research and evaluation. Seldom, if ever, has a "cult" shown such concern about scientific accountability. Despite its recent introduction, the continued practice of transcendental meditation has been shown to:
1. reduce anxiety (Wallace 1970, Doucette, 1972)
2. improve learning (Abrams, 1972, Shaw and Kolb, 1970)
3. improve accuracy of percepts (Blasdell, 1971)
4. increase energy and reduce need for sleep (Wallace, 1970)
5. increase mental health (Fehr, 1972) (Goleman, 1971) (Seeman, 1972), (Kanellakos, et al., 1972)
6. reduce blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen intake (Allison, 1970), Wallace, et al., 1971), (Wallace, et al.,1972)
7. reduce drug-abuse dependence (Benson, 1969, 1970), (Williams, 1972), (Winquist, 1969)
8. decrease hostility (Bose and Berger, 1972)
9. increase alpha wave production (Brown, et al., 1972).
But TM has been packaged for American tastes in more subtle ways. One of its dictates is that practitioners should not meditate more than fifteen to twenty minutes twice per day, and the occasional longer meditations should be undertaken only under supervision.
The practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) is an outgrowth of Hindu tradition, developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from the teachings of guru Dev under whom he studied for many years. The practice itself begins with the training of each participant. It is not required that the individual conform to strict disciplinary rules in terms of alteration of life style, nor is there an emphasis on asceticism involved. The instructor is a trained teacher who studied under the guidance of the Maharishi himself, but contrary to more formal Hindu teaching such as Vedanta, the student gradually lessens contact with the teacher as he becomes more proficient in the practice.
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*This paragraph consists of a series of quotes from Levine, P., 1972. The first sentence is quoted from Maharishi, 1969.
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The training involves the presentation of a mantra or meaningless sound to the student which is only described as a vehicle that allows meditation to take place. The next step in the training is described "sitting upright in a chair with eyes closed, the student listens to his mantra as it is chanted by his teacher, and then takes it up himself - first aloud, and then silently.... Meditators appear for all practical purposes to be asleep. Yet they say their minds remain acutely aware of outside stimuli. . . . "
After the initial four lessons the student practices the meditation on his own on a twice daily basis for 15-20 minutes per session. The state arrived at during this process has been described as a wakeful hypo-metabolic physiologic state in which the nervous system naturally goes about normalizing the existing tensions and discords, biochemical and physiologic abnormalities. With the regular practice of this restful psychophysiologic experience the spontaneous occurring result is improved physiologic functioning, increased psychophysiologic stability, and improved psychological integration.
The studies are too numerous to go into detail here, but for further references one is directed to: "The Psychobiology of Transcendental Meditation: A Literature Review," Kanellakos and Zukas (1973). Briefly however, in terms of physiological changes, the Stanford Research Institute Review stated: "The physiological correlates of TM - and some of the meditational states reached by other techniques - appear to define a lowered metabolic state characterized by decreased autonomic activity, decreased emotional and sensory reactivity, decreased muscle tension, and a wakeful, alert brain."
Despite the fact that there is an initiation fee for TM, (the money goes to support the organization's research, educational, and recruiting operations), the movement has been very successful both in the United States and abroad. Various world centers, including the Maharishi International University (at the site of former Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa) have been set up. Practitioners are supposed to number over 500,000 in the U.S. alone.
Because of its interest in research, its non-insistence on a creed, and its adaptation to American life styles, it seems of all forms of meditation, perhaps the easiest for most Westerners to pursue.
4.64 Psychocatalysis: The Foundation of Human Understanding29
The Foundation of Human Understanding was founded by Roy Masters, who is still its president and most authoritative, outspoken proponent of the meditation exercise and underlying philosophy.
Masters developed the meditation exercise in the early 1960's and is the sole official instructor of the technique which is presented
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to the student on a set of records along with an accompanying book entitled "How Your Mind Can Keep You Well." In each of these the student is guided through the meditation practice, and at the same time presented with the underlying philosophy espoused by the organization. Some individuals who have practiced the technique for several years have criticized the practice of presenting beliefs to the student during meditation. They claim that it runs contradictory to the purpose of meditation itself to install beliefs externally during meditation. Some have even claimed that it borders on an hypnotic process. Masters has defended this procedure claiming that he is only reinforcing deeper truths regarding dynamics of human behavior and that the individual is in a state of conscious awareness and not in an hypnotic trance.
The meditation process, which is performed by the individual alone after several beginning sessions with the record, is practiced twice daily for approximately 15minutes per session.
In very basic terms it involves sitting or lying quietly and centering the concentration on the center of the forehead. Contrary to the process of TM, however, in this form of meditation the object is not to still the mind through the imposition of a mantra. Instead, the individual is to observe his thought without being caught up in thought or holding on to a particular idea.
Masters (1971) calls this technique "Psychocatalysis" and describes it as a combination of "some of the concentration techniques of ancient Yoga with the sound logic of Judeo-Christian principles." He sees the process of the meditation exercise as a "Subjection of mind, feeling, and body, to the dictates of inner reality; the technique by which the consciousness is 'raised' to the level of observation."
4.65 Arica 29
The Arica Institute was founded in 1970 by Oscar Ichazo, a South American who has combined the diverse areas of religion, esoteric mysticism, and psychology. Through years of experience he developed a holistic approach to human development based upon the elimination of barriers to positive states of consciousness. These barriers to higher levels of consciousness, according to Ichazo (Keen, 1973), are the result of ego-dominated thought which he feels prevents transcendence to the realization of higher self nature (or as he calls it 'essence') and accompanying cognitive growth.
The eclectic techniques he has developed deal with three basic areas which he considers extensions of this ego-dominated thought. These areas are body, emotion, and intellect.
A detailed analysis of the techniques used to eliminate barriers
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in each of these three areas would be too lengthy and complex to be included here. But generally they include:
1) exercises based upon Hatha Yoga and Aikido for the purpose of overcoming "body ego" and reaching the Kath or spontaneous flowing of movement,
2) exercises designed to attain a "biological understanding of objective virtue" (Keen, 1973)leading to a harmonious emotional life and
3) meditation and chanting exercises designed to eliminate the barrier of intellect and transcend it to higher levels of consciousness where there can be a syntaxic communicating of deeper meanings of inner reality.
This last area of meditation and chanting is of particular interest here since its purpose is the experience of higher levels of consciousness in a syntaxic manner. And while Ichazo emphasizes the destructive aspect of ego more than is the case with the previous forms of meditation (with the exception of psychocatalysis) the similarity lies in the emphasis on higher levels of consciousness toward the level of the nature mystic experience and beyond. In fact Ichazo has numbered various "states of consciousness," adapting it from the Gurdjieff chart of vibration levels, which is organized in ascending and descending order from the highest positive level to the lowest negative level. A description of each level is given by Lilly (1972) (p. 148) in relationship to both the Gurdjieff levels and those of Hindu philosophy.
These levels of consciousness are experienced by nearly everyone at sometime, but it is the ability to map and integrate these experiences in the syntaxic mode of communicating deeper meaning that produced growth at the cognitive level. And in terms of its interdependent relationship with affective development, increasingly profound understanding of inner reality must take place along with ego transcendence to a higher self realization and reorganization of identity in that respect.
4.66 Zen29
Zen is another branch of Buddhism and consists of several schools emphasizing different areas of practice. In terms of Buddhist philosophy, it is interesting to compare the extreme difference in emphasis and practice between Nichiren Shoshu and Zen. In the former there is no emphasis on initial intent, need for a guru, or hard work and a strictly disciplined life style to achieve the goal of understanding the self and attaining Buddahood. In Zen the emphasis is indeed on these things. In Nichiren Shoshu the initial attraction seems to be the attainment of desired things which will make the person happy and reinforce belief. In Zen the attraction seems to be the striving for understanding of self and stimulation of the developmental process
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through disciplined practice, which eventually will lead to a real joy and happiness for the individual. Whereas discomfort is not emphasized in Nichiren Shoshu, in Zen the student may be purposely exposed to it for the purpose of breaking down "mind sets" and transcending the intellect.
This transcendence of the intellect to a syntaxic experience of inner reality at higher levels of consciousness is the basic thrust of Zen in terms of cognitive development. In terms of affective development, it is the transcendence of ego to identification with higher self nature. The merging of the two comes in the attainment of Buddahood which seems to be a development of self toward identification and unity with the numinous element.
The whole process of Zen meditation is directed toward a life style of affective and cognitive development designed to answer the question "Who am I?" As Suzuki puts it; "When you ask what Zen is, I say that Zen is you and you are Zen. The questioner is the answerer. Before you ask somebody outside what Zen is, you turn inwardly and ask, who am I?" (p. 18-19).
Turning inwardly is the practice of Zen meditation. It is practiced in a very disciplined manner under the direction of a Roshi or Master who guides the student's progress, providing challenges and offering encouragement.
The meditation may be viewed under four headings according to Humphreys (1971); 1) Continuity - the regular practice of meditation, 2) Zazen - Zen sitting wherein the student meditates upon a subject given him by the Roshi or Master, 3) Koan and Mundo - The Koan is a word, phrase or saying which defies intellectual analysis and thereby enables the user to burst the fetters of conceptual thought. The Mundo is a rapid exchange of question and answer between master and student, and 4) Satori - the intuitive looking into the nature of things.
Through the experiential process of Zen in the preceding manner, the dualistic intellectual process operating within ordinary states of consciousness is strained to the point of exposing its inability to understand the nature of inner reality through analysis. This inner reality is considered to have its own set of laws which transcend time, space, and personality and which consist of seeming paradoxes to ordinary intellectual process. An example of the paradox of inner reality is the statement by Suzuki (1957) that "In Buddhist Emptiness there is no time, no space, no becoming, no-thing-ness; it is what makes all these things possible; it is a zero full of infinite possibilities, it is a void of inexhaustible contests." (P. 30).
This inner reality with its seeming paradoxical relationships can
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only be understood by breaking through to higher levels of consciousness where there is a movement inward from creativity through mystical experience to enlightenment.
The growth process concurrently toward enlightenment and realization of higher self nature is many times referred to in Zen as attaining the Unattainable. It is considered such because it is beyond intellectual analysis and must be experienced. It is also considered such because it is a movement away from dualism toward unity, a movement from a turmoil of illusion to a reality of "Emptiness" and peace. Suzuki (1971) speaks of the intellect and its role in Zen in "attaining the unattainable" as follows: "Zen never despises intellection as such, but it wants intellection to know its place and not to go beyond the sphere it properly belongs to.
4.67 Vedanta29
In basic terms, Vedanta is perhaps the trunk of the tree from which all of the previous forms have branched. It sprung from ancient Hindu philosophy and demonstrates the very nature of Indian philosophy itself. According to Rao (1966) the nature of this philosophy " . . . is the search for an experience of Reality. The subject-matter of Indian philosophy, however, is not the entire reality. It is more, the true nature of the self." (p. 33). This emphasis on the true understanding of self as the key to reality is basic to the Vedantic striving for emancipation from ignorance. The concern for an accurate perception of self as a basis for understanding internal and external reality and for growth is of critical importance.
The Vedanta philosophy and meditative practice (which is an experiential validation of the philosophy) are derived from the teachings of three principle texts: 1) the Upanishads, 2) the Bhagavad Gita, and 3) the Vedanta Sutras.
The fundamental principle involved in the teachings according to Denssen (1906) is that Brahman (the eternal principle of all being, which creates and sustains all worlds and absorbs them) is identical with the Atman, the self or soul (our true essence when judged rightly). This soul is not a part of Brahman, but it is fully and entirely the eternal indivisible Brahman itself. In order to experience this "divine" nature (or higher self nature) within the individual he must "go within" through meditation.
The method which is chosen for meditation can vary depending upon the individual and is determined by the guru. The guru is extremely important in Vedanta meditation and performs a similar function to the Zen Master in guiding the student in his development. He also maintains a position of high respect for his exemplary life
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style. However, in contrast to the Zen Master, the guru in Vedanta reinforces the experiential development of the student with teachings from the three principle texts. The purpose for this seems to be to give the student a framework from which to direct his daily life and to point the intellect toward thoughts of a higher nature. This is so that as his experience validates these teachings he continues to evolve in both affective and cognitive areas and does not continue to accumulate Karma due to improper actions along the way.
In Vedanta the guru recognizes that there are many paths to the goal of emancipation from unreality and therefore the Mantra, object, or technique of meditation may vary for each student based upon the one the guru deems best suited to the student.
As a reflection of its philosophy of dispelling external illusion and experiencing inner reality, according to Denssen (1906), Vedanta meditation stresses the " . . . withdrawing of the organs of sense from everything external and in concentrating them upon one's own inner nature." (p. 8). In comparison with the previous forms of meditation this "withdrawing" may be seen as emphasizing the existence of reality only at higher levels of consciousness and being rather than the existence of reality at varying levels of consciousness. This latter emphasis is seen as an illusion.
The process of meditation taught by the guru is intended to allow the student to validate the truth of the guru's teachings and thereby acquire true knowledge of reality. In fact true knowledge is considered the means of emancipation in Vedanta. Acquiring true "knowledge" in Vedanta can be likened to the syntaxic experience of higher levels of consciousness in the cognitive area and contact with higher self nature in the affective area as seen in the previous forms of meditation.
4.68 Integral Yoga
We have seen that the procedures of the creative stage become steadily more cerebral. It is true even of the various forms of meditation. Tantric and hatha yoga, for example, depend considerably upon physical and somatic aspects. Integral Yoga, by contrast, does not. It was discovered and developed by Sri Aurobindo (Ghose), a brilliant and fiery Indian nationalist and contemporary of Gandhi's who took honors at Oxford, and later was imprisoned for agitating for Indian Independence. Renouncing politics, in the 1920's he established an ashram at Pondicherry, India, where as a persuasive writer and religious leader, he became famous for his cognitive approach.30
Sri Aurobindo taught that it was possible for the conscious ego to receive the numinous element and yet retain consciousness if certain rules were followed. His method avoids the "trance" aspects of samadhi,
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and de-emphasizes the "ecstatic" aspects of mystic experience. First purification and meditation in an ashram is necessary. Then as his biographer Satprem (1968:38-9) tells us, comes one of the first signs of enlightenment - the "descent of the force."
We feel around the head and more particularly at the nape of the neck an unusual pressure which may give the sensation of a false headache. At the beginning we cannot endure it for long and shake it off, we seek distraction.... Gradually this pressure takes a more distinct form, and we feel a veritable current which descends (i.o.). . . .
This is the start of the integral yoga of Aurobindo, a pranic force which descends the spine instead of ascending it like the kundalini. According to Aurobindo this method results in no ecstatic moments, but better, complete cognition at all times. "The physical effect is almost exactly that of walking in the breeze."
As this process continues (Satprem, 1968:40-1) one becomes like "a solid cool block of peace." One experiences the descent of Shakti as a vast aquamarine blueness and an indescribable coolness (for it is endothermic, not exothermic like the psychic heat of the rising kundalini).31
The next effect (Satprem, 1968:42) is the emergence of a new mode of knowledge. One noticeable sign that order is surfacing in the lives of those who are well along this path is the appearance of a phenomenon we will define as synergy. Synergy occurs in at least two forms. First there is synergy within the individual who is ready for enlightenment; it is commonly found in those who have firmly established the creative routine. It depends upon the fact that while the human mind can attend to only one idea at a time, cosmic mind can attend to a great many (much like a shared-time computer). What happens is that one day, one finds oneself witnessing the fact that a number of things are going on in consciousness, all at the same time. Instead of conflict, however, all these discrete matters are managed harmoniously and effectively. The concept of the witness is an important one of which many occult writers speak.
As Sri Aurobindo puts it (Satprem, 1968:45) "The mind is not an instrument of knowledge, but only an organizer of knowledge." It should be noted that synergy, like other effects in this area is anti-entropic, that is, it contributes to order, not disorder.
In the creative stage, this universal mind (the collective preconscious) leaked creative ideas to the conscious ego (as though by osmosis through a permeable membrane) so that the ego is suffered to think that the ideas are its own. But as one becomes more creative verging
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towards the next stage, one has "openings" wherein the ego consciousness is allowed to enter the enlarged domain of the preconscious: the doors of Aladdin's cave are thrown open, and the ego is dazzled by what it finds therein, which it recognizes as coming from outside its own narrow confines. (This is the witness level.)
Having found out (says Satprem, 1968:47) not only
. . . that the thoughts of others come to us from the outside, but that our own thoughts also come to us in the same way from outside ... when we are sufficiently transparent, we can feel in the silent immobility of the mind, little swirling eddies which draw our attention ...
we have caught a mental vibration before it has had time to enter and rise to our conscious so that we would perceive it as "my thought."
This extension of empathy is the key to reading the thoughts of others, and to the concept of synergy which we have been discussing. The mental transparency on occasion allows us to visualize more easily, which strengthens our orthocognitive processes, and may allow us to predict, heal or scry. It may also occasionally allow us (in the manner of TV chromokeying32) to see superimposed on the physical reality we are in, another superphysical or psychic and separate reality which appears momentarily and then fades away (just like the superimposed chromokeyed TV picture of the news event appears behind the news commentator as he discusses it, and then fades away).
The second concept of synergy has to do with activities between individuals. For with similarly advanced individuals, instead of responding with the usual difficulties and entropy which a bunch of individual minds might be supposed to cause, these individuals (as though polarized by some external magnet), all seem to operate harmoniously like the constituent parts of a unified social body. This enormously reduces the waste time and effort which would otherwise result from the random operation between these individuals.33
A third concept is the "witness phenomenon," which was also mentioned as the last effect sometimes seen in highly creative individuals (section 4.37m). It is the result of the full preparation of the mind, having been stilled and quieted, to receive its cosmic guest.
Satprem (1968:43) points out that this ability to sustain a bit of the silence even in the workaday world leads to an important step:
He will have discovered the Witness (i.o.) in himself and will let himself be captured less and less by the exterior play which ... tries to swallow us alive.
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Satprem quotes Sri Aurobindo (1968:78) on what western psychologists would call "dasein-choosing" in regard to untoward life events:
Is it not possible that the soul itself ... has accepted and chosen these things as part of its development in order to get through the necessary experience at a rapid rate ... even at the cost of damage to the outward life. . . . To the spirit within us may not difficulties ... be a means of growth ... ?
Satprem (1968:94) identifies this inner fire as "Agni:" "the self of fire," "the only true 'I' in us." The Katha Upanishad is quoted:
"A conscious being is in the center of the self, who rules past and future; he is like a fire without smoke."
The individual who in the syntaxic mode is psychedelically in command of his environment through such techniques as meditation and orthocognition is in a similar circumstance to the individual having the lucid dream: both are aware that the environment in which they appear to find themselves is but a dream; both are aware that this environment can be changed by the individual will.
4.69 Conclusion
1. Meditation is the final procedure, so at this point we are able to draw conclusions about meditation, about the creative stage, and about procedures in general. As the highest procedure of the creative stage, meditation is fully cognitive and syntaxic, but curiously enough the mind is not exercised, it is stilled. For meditation clearly looks ahead to an infusion which is both super-rational and transpersonal. This stilling of the mind in preparation for something to come, - his cleaning of the house and setting it in order to receive an important guest - this process is the hallmark of all meditational forms.
2. Meditation also involves some kind of purification of the senses, reduction of perceptual intake, avoidance of thoughts which are gross and sordid. It involves a change in attentional shift, from concepts built on percepts to prathahara (withdrawal of the mind from sensory percepts). It has some kind of cleansing quality.
3. Unlike creativity which seeks a social response to solve a problem, and orthocognition, which seeks some personal relief or benefit, meditation seeks no product beyond itself. It therefore is the only procedure to gain independence from the ego.
4. Table XI compares the various forms of meditation, with the anchor points of humanistic therapy on the lower end, and mysticism (the next stage) on the upper. It will be seen that while most forms of meditation reflect some adaptation of Vedic principles, they differ with respect to dogma, guru, discipline, objectives, and participants.
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Table XI Comparison Between Various Forms of Meditation
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It appears that in some way not fully understood as yet, creativity may be a substitute for at least some of the activities of meditation. Both appear to have unique properties in "preparing" individuals for psychedelic or mystic experience. For example, the "witness phenomena" (seen in creativity in section 4.37m) is also seen in Integral Yoga (section 4.68). Psychological and semantic flexibility (sections 4.371), and general systems theory, (section 4.38) are akin to synergy and other similar effects seen in Integral Yoga (section 4.68). There is also relation between serendipity (section 4.37d) and some similar effects found in both Transcendental Meditation and Biofeedback. Creativity, hence, like Biofeedback and Meditation, prepares its practitioners in some sense for the "Response Experience" (Jhana-1), and the "Access State" (Jhana- 0) which had earlier been thought to be the function of meditation alone. Indeed, it appears that all of the procedures of the creative level, besides their outer benefits, have in common to a greater or less degree this preparatory function for the glories of the psychedelic state.
5. One of the remarkable aspects of meditation is the absolute unanimity with which all systems, Christian, Hindu, and others name it as an indispensable component of development and deliverance. Even the name is the same everywhere (see Table XII). Meditation, said St. Teresa, (Leuba, 1925:163) is the upper limit of the range of mental activity. In this statement she indicates an intuitive realization of the difference between procedures and graces, for this is as far as man can go by his own effort. She also appears to recognize that at this level distractions are annoying. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:167-8) says much the same, pointing that meditation often takes place with difficulty owing to distractions. Christian meditations appear to differ from mantric meditations in that thoughts of love of God are uppermost in the former, while cessation of all thought is sought in the latter. Poulain (1912:7-12, Leuba, 1925:177) adds to meditation (discursive prayer), affective prayer (in which the affections are predominant), and The Prayer of Simplicity or The Prayer of Simple Regard (quiet adoration). In yogic meditation (Eliade, 1969:84-88) having disposed of the lower form with its distractions, the yogi passes to a higher form without distraction which would fall into jhana-1, and hence into the Psychedelic Stage (section 4.71). Meditation then, appears universally recognized as the last conscious procedure instituted from man alone, involving some kind of cognitive reflection, subject to annoying distractions, but an indispensable prologue to Psychedelic Ecstasy.
Wilhelm (1962:50-1) describes three confirmatory evidences of progress towards enlightenment in meditation:
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a. the sound of men talking at a distance, like a muffled echo,
b. light in the eyes so that everything before one becomes bright,
c. levitation, a feeling of being drawn upward.
6. The creative stage is characterized by five procedures, tantric sex, creativity, orthocognition, biofeedback, and meditation. From first to last, the procedures steadily become more cerebral, more unselfish, more concerned with mind-expansion, and more involved in control of the environment. This stage is truly the arena of activity of any adult who has escalated from the formal operations level of Piaget. The whole stage with its five procedures is therefore of intense interest to the intelligent, educated adult. It forms an indispensable bridge to growth and self-actualization for our culture, and constitutes the only method of making ready for, or understanding the phenomena of, the psychedelic stage. It is for this reason that we have taken the space to discuss it so specifically.
The procedures in general, across the three modes from prototaxic to syntaxic, appear to be specific and distinct methods of contacting the numinous element, generally in an altered state of consciousness (although this fact is less true with the higher procedures than it is with the lower). From sometimes gross and somatic aspects, the procedures become more cognitive and cerebral; they gain in social effect and benefit; they steadily become more developmental. They end with meditation which is suitably an invitation for something higher - namely a grace.
4.7 PSYCHEDELIA AND ECSTASY
We now come to the psychedelic stage with its six levels of graces and with the most remarkable, emergent, and spectacular properties. The most egregious of these is mystic ecstasy, found uniformly throughout the stage, and the principle characteristic which distinguishes a grace from a procedure - namely that the procedure can be initiated, but the grace comes from without or "on high." Every culture has its traditions of mysticism; we prefer the word psychedelia, as pointing to the mind-expansion involved in the process. Consciousness indeed wakes up in a corner of space and time, and in a little ego, yet its potential is to become conscious of all space, all time, and of transpersonality.
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Table XII Comparison of Mystic and Psychedelic Levels in Christian and Hindu Sources
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As we did in the last procedure of meditation, we shall perforce lean heavily on Hindu sources, not only because they are clearer, but also because they are more amenable to psychological investigation than are Christian. Nevertheless, we shall in deference to the background of most of our readers quote as many Christian sources as are appropriate. This will lead to some seeming dichotomy, since the two religious traditions are not completely compatible. Riviere (1973:69-70) points out a doctrinal difference between Eastern and Western forms of mysticism. Whereas in the West, mysticism is looked upon as a grace from on high, for which man cannot prepare a sufficient but only a necessary condition, in the yoga tradition, this development is seen as a natural accretion of powers which depend upon the disciple's own efforts.
Webster's 1971 addendum defines psychedelic (from psyche-soul, and delos-reveal) (for its first meaning) as follows: "Relating to or causing an exposure of normally repressed psychic elements." We shall use this meaning, rather than employing "psychedelia" as a synonym for drug use. Watts (1972:354) uses "psychedelic" to mean 'mind manifesting'.
Natural psychedelic experiences occur in a wide number of differing situations, involving certain common elements:
1) The attention of the subject is gripped, and his perception narrowed or focused on a single event or sensation;
2) which appears to be an experience of surpassing beauty or worth;
3) in which values or relationships never before realized are instantaneously or very suddenly emphasized;
4) resulting in the sudden emergence of great joy and an orgiastic experience of ecstasy;
5) in which individual barriers separating the self from others or nature are broken down;
6) resulting in a release of love, confidence, or power; and
7) some kind of change in the subsequent personality, behavior, or artistic product after the rapture is over.
"Psychedelic experience" means a mind-expanding or mind-disclosing experience, and is not confined to the narrow use in terms of psychoactive drugs. It embraces mystic, peak, ecstatic, oceanic, illuminative, nature, communal, and other types of experiences having certain common qualities revealing emergent aspects of mind, and contact or union, immediate and not through the senses, with some absolute (see Gowan 1974: ch 3).
Assuredly there are gradations in these experiences; they are not all of equal depth. There are several aspects which appear to be common to them all:
1) they often have an uncanny, supernormal quality;
2) they involve euphoria or bliss to an extent unknown in most usual activities;
3) they seem to be important in some strange way;
4) there is some element of transcendence, and
5) they remain in the memory longer and more vividly than ordinary events.
Maslow (Mooney and Razik, 1967, p. 49ff) describes some of the characteristics of persons having peak experiences. He lists them as
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"giving up the past, giving up the future, innocence, a narrowing of consciousness, loss of self-consciousness, disappearance of fear, lessening of defenses, strength and courage, acceptance, trust, receptivity, integration, ability to dip into the preconscious, aesthetic perceiving, spontaneity, expressiveness, and fusion with the world."
Stace (1960) identifies nine qualities of the psychedelic experience as follows:
1) unity,
2) transformation of space and time,
3) deeply felt positive mood,
4) sacredness,
5) objectivity and reality,
6) paradoxicality,
7) alleged ineffability,
8) transiency, and
9) persisting positive changes in subsequent behavior.
Russell (1925:9) describes the credo of the mystic which is essentially what has been said in sections 4.1 and 4.5 as:
1) there is a better way of gaining information than through the senses;
2) there is unity in all things,
3) there is no reality in time, and
4) all evil is mere appearance.
Masters and Houston (1966:266) report:
The Integral Level. When we examine those psychedelic experiences which seem to be authentically religious, we find that during the session the subject has been able to reach the deep integral level wherein lies the possibility of confrontation with a Presence variously described as God, Spirit, Ground of Being, Mysterium, Noumenon, Essence, and Ultimate or Fundamental Reality. In this confrontation there no longer is any question of surrogate sacrality. The experience is one of direct and unmediated encounter with the source level of reality, felt as Holy, Awful, Ultimate, and Ineffable.
Bucke (1923) was the first writer to give a semi-psychological explanation to the psychedelic state. His book Cosmic Consciousness, although heavily loaded with the religious usage of the time, recorded what he called the "illumination" of 45 individuals, and thus provided a prototype for Maslow's later study on self-actualized persons. He was the first to bring mysticism into the light of psychological examination. He defined his "illumination" as follows:
a) The person, without warning, has a sense of being immersed in a flame or cloud;
b) he is bathed in an emotion of joy, assurance, triumph, or salvation;
c) an intellectual illumination, a clear conception or vision of the meaning of the universe; he sees and knows that the Cosmos is a living presence;
d) a sense of immortality;
e) the vanishing of the fear of death;
f) and sin;
g) the whole experience is instantaneous or nearly so,
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h) the previous character of the percipient is important,
i) so is the age at which the experience occurs (which is between 25 and 40),
j) there is added a charm of personality,
k) and in some case change in appearance such as might happen to one who experienced great joy.
Viewed psychologically the adventitious elevation of an individual into a higher state of consciousness, such as a nature mystic experience must be viewed with considerable interest. There has obviously been an excess of pranic energy, but why has it taken the outlet of bringing a higher state of experience into consciousness? One can only speculate that there must be some predisposing cause (high intelligence, poetic, artistic, or high moral disposition, etc), and an environmental "trigger" (nature, etc.) which produces a temporary escalation into a higher developmental state, much as an encounter group may produce a peak experience in one ready for it.
The every day processes of living in the conscious mind usually succeed in the average individual in successfully compartmentalizing off the preconscious. But very occasionally, we find, for reasons that we are yet unaware, the upwelling of the preconscious area, like the eruption of molten magma from the mantle of the earth. This onset of active subliminal life may appear as the prepsychotic panic reaction of Boisen (1932) in those for whom its coming is premature and prototaxic. In artists and others of parataxic outlets, it may surface as the sudden shift in life style which overtook Gauguin and transformed him from a French bourgeois to a tropical castaway. Finally, in those already creative or firmed in the syntaxic mode, it appears as a creative or higher opening, poetical, musical, or even as a theophany or mystic ecstasy.
It is even possible that the psychedelic state is somewhat different than that reported by the mystics of the past (i.e., a state of fortuitous graces), and that it embraces a larger domain of which transports, raptures, and ecstasies are merely the affective overload. If mind expansion can occur without the emotional effects usually associated with it in the past, and if the psychedelic stage is now within reach of the "normal" developmental process, then one may reasonably ask: (1) what are the disposing characteristics of readiness, and (2) what is the psychedelic state without the appearance of the conventional psychic powers?
The disposing characteristics of readiness seem to be clearly outlined in the "prayer of quiet" aspects of the higher meditative state in which distractions do not occur. The psychedelic state without conventional psychic manifestations consists in increased control over one's
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mind, one's feelings, and one's environment, so that one ceases to be a reactive being and begins (as part of the noumenon) to design one's life and future. But before going further, it is necessary to point out emphatically that it is possible to be in the psychedelic state and not have peak experiences or ecstasies. Though Bucke included Emerson "out" of his illumined elect because Emerson was too cognitive for such an experience, Maslow was wise enough to realize that there are "peakers" and "non-peakers." (The writer admits that he is one of the latter). While non-peakers might become peakers by the infusion of psychoactive drugs, it is possible to learn from vicarious as well as direct experience. The austere attitude of Sri Aurobindo on this subject of ecstasy should caution us adequately (section 4.68). For those still unconvinced, there is a little classic called The Appeal of Quakerism to the Non-Mystic (Littleboy:1916, 1964) which is very helpful. While it is certainly conducive to a good marriage for the wife to go into orgiastic ecstasy twice a week, it is not necessary; the same situation applies here.
From our individual conscious view, a psychedelic experience is an episode when the doors of the preconscious swing open and the conscious mind finds itself master in a new and enlarged domain, with awe and exaltation resulting from new insights and expanded control. From the preconscious side, the phenomenon can be viewed as a final breaking through into consciousness of psychic tension which needed the fresh air of expression. It is at last a full syntaxic consciousness of the numinous, which is finally received at the full cognitive level; it is finally housed in cognitive consciousness, which is its predestined domicile. The juncture involves both expansion of cognitive knowledge and emergent aspects of affective union, seen in the appropriate ecstasy.
All higher religions attempt to clarify this relationship of the individual ego to the general mind. Indeed, the process of life may be viewed as development of the self from ego-centricity to a merging with the noumenon in psychedelic experience. Cogitation (literally a "shaking-up") explains the discontinuity of successive developmental stages in which the ego is reoriented by permuting its relationship, first to the world of experience, then to itself, then to the beloved other (see Gowan 1974:48ff). This cycle of differential emphasis forces the ego into new experiences, breaking it loose from ego-centricity, and directing it on a sequence culminating in the full ability to understand its nature and function. Such development eventuates in cognitive access to the preconscious, which allows conscious juncture with the numinous, and the prerogatives and powers of the psychedelic state.
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4.71 Response Experiences37
The initial grace in the psychedelic stage is the response experience. In response experiences one feels a sense of Presence, but hears not and sees not the Lord; in the Adamic Ecstasy one hears the Lord, but does not see him. In the Knowledge Ecstasy, one sees the Lord. In Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree one, one touches Him (or is touched); in Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree two, one penetrates Him (or is penetrated by Him). In Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree three, one merges with Him.
The name "Response Experience" comes from Laski (1962:100) who denies that it is a true ecstasy (though many others would dispute her), and calls it a response experience because it appears to be "triggered" by some aspect of nature. Perhaps for this reason it is often called a nature-mystic experience, and as such is frequently noted by poets, artists, writers, and other intellectuals. It is also cognate with Freud's "oceanic" experience and Maslow's "peak-experience."
As the "lowest" psychedelic experience, it contains all the basic properties of the class: the self is purified; fear and shame vanish; there is a realization or feeling that "All is one;" the concept of Gemeinschaftsgefuhl or reconciliation with all men as brothers and indeed all life is felt. Christian Scripture tells us that we must be reconciled with our brother and become purified before we can enter the presence of God, and while the preliminary conditions are met, this procedure is "low" precisely because the self does not yet identify the presence it feels as numinous. In place of merging with the numinous element, there is often merging with nature or some natural object, but all experiences of this level involve a oneness with the creation rather than with the creator.
Rufus Jones tells us of his mystical experience which occurred as a young man in the foothills of the Alps (1932:196-7):
I was walking alone in the forest, trying to map out my plan of life. . . . Suddenly I felt the walls between the visible and the invisible grow thin, and the Eternal seemed to break through into the world where I was. I saw no flood or light, I heard no voice. But I felt as though I was face to face with a higher order of reality.
Laski (1962:418) quotes Richard Church, the writer, as follows:
I felt the hair of my head tingling, and a curtain of red blood appeared to fall before my eyes. I leaned forward, clasping myself close, while the world rocked around me. And as this earthquake
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subsided, I saw a new skyline defined. It was a landscape in which objects and words were fused. . . .
Thomas Merton, the mystic friar, describes his theophany (1962:278-9):
But what a thing it was, this awareness: it was so intangible, and yet it struck me like a thunderclap. It was a light so bright that it had no relation to any visible light.... It was as if I had suddenly been illuminated by being blinded by the manifestation of God's presence.
Otto (1928:221) quotes George Allen on a numinous experience of the critic John Ruskin:
'Lastly, although there was no definite religious sentiment mingled with it, there was a continual perception of Sanctity in the whole of nature, from the slightest thing to the vastest; an instinctive awe, mixed with delight; an indefinable thrill, such as we sometimes imagine to indicate the presence of a disembodied spirit. I could only feel this perfectly when I was alone; and then it would often make me shiver from head to foot with the joy and fear of it, when after being some time away from hills I first got to the shore of a mountain river, where the brown water circled among the pebbles, or when I first saw the swell of distant land against the sunset, or the first low broken wall, covered with mountain moss. I cannot in the least describe the feeling; but I do not think this is my fault, nor that of the English language, for I am afraid no feeling is describable. If we had to explain even the sense of bodily hunger to a person who had never felt it, we should be hard put to it for words; and the joy in nature seemed to me to come of a sort of heart-hunger, satisfied with the presence of a Great and Holy Spirit.'
Underhill (1960:234) regards this initial experience as one held in common by poets, artists, and mystics:
To see God in nature, to attain to a radiant consciousness of the "otherness" of natural things, is the simplest and commonest form of illumination. . . Where such a consciousness is recurrent, as it is with many poets, for instance, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Browning, Tennyson, and Whitman, there results a partial yet often overpowering apprehension of the Infinite Life imminent in all living things, which some modern writers have dignified by the name of "nature-mysticism."
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Underhill goes on to aver that the true mystic takes this experience as a point of departure, and grows in grace from it, whereas the poet and artist simply use the recurrent experience as a basis for artistic production and personal euphoria.
Since we have elsewhere described many examples of this experience (Gowan 1974:113-119), we forbear further here. Other examples will be found in Bucke (1902), Laski (1962) and Happold (1970:129-142).
This naturally induced psychedelic experience differs from the drug-induced psychedelic experience because the ego is more openly and overtly in control. Some "good trips" on drugs may result in affective elevation similar to the natural psychedelic experience, but "bad trips" on drugs seem to have no counterpart in the natural state, probably because natural psychedelia does not occur until one is ready for it.
Response experiences are much like siddhis, -psychedelic displays, which need to be followed up by action and development. They represent readiness and potentiality, not accomplishment, (see Huxley 1945:68, 171).
Indeed one may look at such response experiences as virtually an example of an ecstasy in the parataxic mode, where the numinous element is veiled by nature, and while one is conscious of a presence, one is not sure what that presence is. Such experiences appear to be triggered both by the good health of the individual and by some natural incident. They are evidence of the wonders that lie ahead, and constitute an earnest and an invitation to proceed. Since the affective precedes the cognitive, there is more affective thrill than cognitive understanding to them. One feels rather than knows. Nevertheless, such experiences can redirect one's life, for they give one the exaltation of standing on a high mountain and gaining for a minute the glory of a grand vista.
In concentrating our attention on ecstasy as the most spectacular aspect of jhana -1, we have not given much attention to the mechanics of progress through the grace. There are both Christian and Hindu traditions about these matters, to which we now turn (Table X11). St. Teresa (Leuba, 1925:164) calls this state the Orison of Quiet; (it is also the fourth dwelling in her Interior Castle). As a "foretaste of supernatural favors," God's grace elevates the soul so that memory and understanding act only spasmodically, and the mind is passive and stilled. Meditation may sometimes be an effort: The Prayer of Quiet is enjoyed for itself. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:168) calls this level Contemplation. Thought is immobilized onto simple regard for the loved Deity; there is total attention to this Object. Poulain (1912:13, 65) (Leuba, 1925:178) calls this state The Prayer
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of Quiet in which the devotee has crossed "an abyss" (from a procedure to a grace). Poulain explains this change in that while in meditation we may think of the presence of God, in The Prayer of Quiet we feel the presence; (note how well this statement qualifies the state for jhana -1 with its sense of presence.).
Patanjali (Eliade, 1969:88ff) says the same thing more abstractly when he points out that while meditation with distraction "thinks about an object," meditation without distraction brings one to dharma in which one penetrates to the essence of the object, and therefore assimilates it in an almost magical sense. Since the "object" is usually Vishnu (or a similar god), "assimilation" means the presence of the deity.
4.72 Adamic or 'Time Ecstasies ("Access" or Jhana 0)
The next level of ecstasy is one to which Blake's great words "the doors of perception are cleansed" apply. All things are seen in the pristine goodness which Adam found before he fell from grace (hence the name). This is the Hindu "access" state in which the primary object does not fully occupy the mind, but comes and goes transiently. God is heard although not seen. The self is restored to primitive grace. Siddhis are most likely in this stage, particularly those of bodily lightness as though floating on air. There may also be light flashes, or waves before the eyes; also noise like running water or the muffled sound of men talking at a distance. Because at this level there is initial loosening of the time aspect of the triple illusion, there often appears to be renewal or restoration of that which has been lost in the past, hence a reestablishment of pristine glory; this can also become a siddhi in which the individual sees the activities of a former time as in a vision. Another common experience is being enveloped in fire or seeing it close by.
Leuba (1925:209) describes an Adamic Ecstasy (Participant is climbing a mountain):
When all at once I experienced a sense of being raised above myself; I felt the presence of God. . . . I could barely tell the boys to pass on and not wait for me. I then sat down on a stone, unable to stand any longer, and my eyes overflowed with tears. I thanked God. . . .
Knox (1950:153) quotes George Fox in another Adamic Ecstasy:
Now was I come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new, and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words
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can utter. I know nothing but pureness, innocency, and righteousness being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus, so that I was come up into the state of Adam which he was in before he fell.
Bucke (1923:v) tells about his own "illumination"
All at once without warning of any kind I found myself wrapped in a flame colored cloud. . . . Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation ... of immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe.
Bucke was surprised to find that such unusual experiences were more common than he had expected, and his book Cosmic Consciousness which catalogs a number of similar ecstasies, (first printed in 1901) has gone through many reprintings. Among the many historical figures cited in the book, one of the most telling is that of Blaise Pascal, famous French scientist and mathematician who had an experience which literally changed his life. He wrote about it as follows (Bu and "many of us have sacred landscapes which probably all have much in common."
D. H. Lawrence in The Rainbow (1949:204-5) echoes a similar timelessness:
Away from time, always outside of time. . Here in the church, "before" and "after" were folded together, all was contained in oneness.
as does T. S. Eliot in "Four Quartets."
Happold (1970:x368-70) quotes Thomas Traherne on the latter's Adamic ecstasy. Since such an ecstasy recovers "le temps perdu" it constitutes a vision of the durative topocosm:
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehension of the world than I.... All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and delightful. . . . All things were spotless, and pure, and glorious. I saw all in the peace of Eden. . . . All time was eternity. . . The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. . . . The men, 0 what venerable and reverend creatures... and the young men glittering and sparkling angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty. ... Boys and girls were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; but all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the light of day, and something infinite behind everything appeared. . . .
The difference between "hearing the Lord" and "seeing the Lord" which distinguishes Adamic ecstasies from Knowledge ecstasies, is illustrated in Exodus 33:9, 11, 18-23.
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And it came to pass as Moses entered the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face. . . . And he said "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." And (the Lord) said "Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live.... And it shall come to pass that while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft in the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, while I pass by. And I will take away my hand and thou shall see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.
From which it is evident that Moses had an Adamic vision.
Many saints are reputed to have had time ecstasies in which they had a vision of holy events. St. Bridget, while adoring a creche, had a vision of Jesus' birth. St. Francis received the Stigmata in a similar instance. St. Teresa, and many others have had such theophanies.
Let us see what the mystics say about jhana 0, or the "access" state. St. Teresa (Leuba, 1912:164) calls this "The Sleep of the Powers" or the Orison of Union (in her Interior Castle where it is the fifth dwelling). As the last state before complete rapture, the soul is more and more absorbed in the complete contemplation of God, which is found more and more enjoyable. The intellectual and sensory powers seem asleep. Teresa calls this state "a celestial madness." Similar strong affective aspects are mentioned by St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1912:168) who calls it Amorous Abstraction and mentions the "presence of the Bridegroom;" "the soul hears his voice." Mental activity is reduced to nil. Father Poulain (1912) Leuba (1925:178) calls this state Full Union. He says:
The soul is fully occupied with the divine object; it is not diverted by any other thought; in short it has no distractions.
The Hindus also agree that this level involves ecstasy which they call "samadhi." The lowest level is samadhi "with support" (sampajnata) in which samadhi is achieved (Eliade, 1969:93) "with the help of an object or a thought." The yogi penetrates the essence of the object, and assimilates it, but he is still differentiated from it. This samadhi level makes possible knowledge and puts an end to suffering. While there is not perfect correspondence between the yogic graces and the Christian, either here or in the next samadhi level, there is an outside-of-time aspect which corresponds to our Adamic Ecstasy. For example, in "gripping" an object the yogi assimilates its past and future, as well as its present.
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The analysis of Adamic time Ecstasies can offer comfort to those persons disturbed by the doom-saying of mystics like Edgar Cayce. Let us remember that under the conditions of the vision (which appears in pictorial form and must later be interpreted in words), the time element has become "distorted," that is, we are in the domain of the "durative topocosm" not clock time. What the mystic therefore interprets as a vision of the future may in actuality be an Adamic Ecstasy recovering the past. A good example of this is the experience of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, in Lichfield (Nickalls, 1952:1962:41-2). Fox admits that he confused a paranormal recollection of early Christian persecution in times past with what he interpreted to be a prediction of future events in his famous "Woe unto the bloody city of Lichfield." (ef pp. 49, 141, 165).
It is also important to realize that Christian mystics may have unintentionally deceived us about the actual value of ecstasies themselves. Satprem (1968:194-5) points out that what we call "transcendent" may merely be the limit of our present consciousness, and today's transcendence may be tomorrow's commonplace. Satprem feels that the neophyte is wrong "in believing that his ecstasy is a sign of progress," for instead, it is a sign of inconscience. "Try to develop your inner individuality, and you will be able to enter these regions in full consciousness," and as Sri Aurobindo says: "It is only when the realization is constant in the waking state that it is truly possessed." In a footnote, noting that "extare" by definition means to be outside one's body, Satprem coins a better Latin derivation "enstasy" which is defined as above.
The mystic experiences of various religious leaders are noted by the Thomases (1942:31, 109, 223) who say:
Zoroaster on Mt. Sabalon saw the seven faces of Ahura Mazda, who ushered him into heaven and gave him much knowledge. (Jhana 1)
Muhammad on the mountain had a vision and heard the voice of Allah. (Jhana 0)
Swedenborg was prepared for his theophany and the gift of second sight by "three years of abnormally long periods of supernatural slumber filled with a continual and logical sequence of dreams." Swedenborg says of this situation: "I was elevated into heaven by degrees and in proportion as I was elevated, my understanding became enlarged, so that I was gradually enabled to perceive things which at first I had not perceived." This sounds very much like the development of a latent factor of intellect. Swedenborg also prefigures the concept of the hologram in that he believed that everything from the least onwards is in itself an image of the total being. Or as
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Emerson puts it: "Nature exists entire in its leasts." Tennyson had the same inspiration:
Flower in the crannied wall
I pluck you out of the crannies;
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower- but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
St. Thomas Aquinas, after a long career as scholar and philosopher to the Catholic Church, had a visionary experience in chapel one Sunday. Declaring that his previous knowledge was as nothing compared with what had been revealed to him, he stopped in the middle of a book, and never wrote another word.
4.73 Knowledge Ecstasy (Jhana 1)34
Knowledge Ecstasies are so called because some transcendent knowledge is communicated suddenly and completely, so that the mystic "knows everything." This cognitive escalation is accompanied by moral illumination of the self. Commonly there is a vision of God who is now seen as well as heard. Hindering thoughts cease, and the primary object is attended constantly without distraction, and with bliss and rapture. As time began to disappear in the previous level, space begins to disappear in this one. This state has a quality of the ineffable, and it is also "noetic" (disclosing depths of knowledge), two characterizations of the mystic state. It is also, of course, transient, and there is passivity of the will.
Allen (1946:30-1) describes an ecstatic experience which occurred to him during a performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony:
It fell into three parts: first the mysterious event itself which occurred in the infinitesimal fraction of a split second; this I learned afterwards to call the Union . . . then illumination, a wordless stream of complex feelings ... lastly enlightenment, the recollection ... of the whole complex ... embalmed in thought-forms and words.
Reinhold (1973:228) quotes St. Francis of Rome:
I saw a very dazzling light that hovered over dense darkness. Within this light there was a tabernacle full of splendor, and above this tabernacle was our Saviour in His sacred human form, and His holy wounds streamed forth rays that garmented the saints with wonderful glory. A great number of saints surrounded
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Him. The Queen of Heaven was also there, and on her head she wore her three crowns from which beams of vivid light emanated. Then I saw other souls that were still one with their bodies. They entered this fire and left it again. Now this fire was the symbol of divine love. I was curious to know who these souls were that I beheld pass through the flame. I was told they belonged to living men who perservered in holy love, and that they came to renew holy love in this furnace.
St. Teresa calls jhana 1 Ecstasy or "Rapture of the Flight of the Soul" (Leuba, 1912:165). It is the sixth dwelling in her Interior Castle. In St. Teresa's words, this is virtual trance, which "comes on more suddenly than the other states, and can with much less success be resisted." When she tried "astonishing forces ... lifted me up." Thus she experienced levitation, one of the siddhis associated with jhanas 1-3. St. Francois de Sales (Leuba, 1925:168) calls this state The Liquefaction of the Soul in God. Poulain (1912) refers to it simply as ecstasy in which "we are no longer able to come out of our prayer at will."
The Hindus call this state Savitarka Samadhi (argumentative) because (Eliade, 1969:95) thought identifies itself with the object meditated on in its essential totality. This direct perception of objects extends to their past and their future. In this Patanjali identifies this state as a "Knowledge Ecstasy" in which knowledge is communicated (Table XII).
Reinhold quotes St. Hildegard (1973:58):
1 saw what seemed to be a great iron-colored mountain. On it sat someone in such glory of light that his radiance dazzled me. On either side a wing both broad and long was spread. Before him stood a shape covered over with eye upon eye. . .
Let us reread Isaiah (6:1-7) which tells of his initial vision:
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face; with twain he covered his feet; with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The fullness of the whole earth is his glory" . . . And the posts of the door were moved at the voice of them that called and the house was filled with smoke. Then said 1: "Woe is me, for I am undone; Because I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, with a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken with the
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tongs from off the altar; and he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Lo this hath touched thy lips; and thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin expiated."
And again, St. Rose' vision of heaven:
I was suspended in quiet contemplation like a light uniting all things, when I saw a flash of wonderful splendor. In the center of the radiance was a rainbow of lucent reflections and colors and over it another of equal grandeur . . . . Above the arches stood the cross ... and within the arches ... shone the form of my Lord. . . .
As Underhill (1960:359) notes, ecstasy is a form of higher trance, "more or less deep, and more or less prolonged." During the trance there is the usual depression in breathing and circulation, with anesthesia and siddhis. (Underhill notes that Bernadette "held a flaming candle in her hand for fifteen minutes during one of her ecstasies. She felt no pain, either did the flesh show any marks of burning.") Rapture, as Underhill (1930:375) notes, is "a sudden and irresistible seizure of ecstasy." As St. Teresa describes it: "In a trance the soul dies gradually to outward things ... rapture comes as a shock, quick and sharp ... you feel and see yourself carried away." Rapture, thus looms very much like a conscious OOB experience (or if you prefer, levitation). Says St. Teresa: "At least I was so much myself as to be able to see that I was being lifted up." Underhill (1930:377) notes that Rulman Merswin was carried around the garden in his rapture, as was St. Catherine of Siena.
St. Catherine of Siena writes:
Oftentimes through the perfect union which the soul has made with Me, she is raised up from the earth almost as if the heavy body became light.
Poulain (1912:278-9) quotes St. Ignatius Loyola speaking of himself in the third person:
... sitting on the banks.... his mind was suddenly filled with a new and strange illumination, so that in one moment, and without any sensible image or appearance, certain things ... were revealed ... and this so abundantly ... that if all ... which he had received up to the time he was more than sixty-two years old could be collected into one ... all this knowledge would not equal what was at that moment conveyed
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Jacob Boehme, the German cobbler, tells of his experience (Bu). At the first level the primary object is transcended, and the self is embodied spiritually. This is the first action of the release of the individual from the prison of selfhood into merging with ultimate reality. Consequently in Knowledge-contact Ecstasy, the self is often felt lost. It is thought, however, that at this first level ecstasy and bliss continue.
Richard Rolle, the English mystic-poet (Wolters 1972:45) says: "My God, my Love, surge over me, pierce me by your love, wound me..." but later admits: "Yet you will not show yourself to me; you look away. . ." The first statement is a desire for jhana 2; the second is admission of being at the access level. Reinhold 1973:322 quotes St Teresa:
Our Lord was pleased that I should have at times a vision of this kind: I saw an angel close by me, on my left side, in bodily form. This I am not accustomed to see unless very rarely. Though I have visions of angels frequently, yet I see them only by an intellectual vision such as I have spoken of before. It was our Lord's will that in this vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature and most beautiful, his face burning as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call cherubim. Their names they never tell me; but I see very well that there is in heaven so great a difference between one angel and another, and between those and the others, that I cannot explain it.
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it time and again into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the
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sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God.
Wayman (Prince 1968:168) discusses three mystic stages of increasing primitiveness (or retreat from our normal discursive consciousness) Analogous to the prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic modes he reports that yogins reach a non-discursive ecstasy from "sound, form, or the tangible." "It would be the difference between hearing the Lord (commonest), seeing the Lord (much rarer), and touching the Lord (rarest of all)."
Younghusband (1935:162) describes the passion of St. Therese of Lisieux:
I was in the choir ... when suddenly I felt myself wounded by a dart of fire so ardent, I thought I should die ... But what fire - what sweetness. Flames of love.
Underhill (1960:379) puts it well:
In the third degree of ardent Love, says Richard of St. Victor, love paralyzes action. Union (copula) is the symbol of this state; ecstasy is its expression. The desirous soul, he says finely, no longer thirsts for God but into God.
Speaking of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna, Younghusband (1930:27) says:
It was impossible to express in language the ecstasy of divine communication when the human soul lost itself in contemplation of the Deity.
Underhill (1960:356-7) quotes St. Teresa on the Contact Union Ecstasy:
In this state there is no sense of anything; only fruition, without understanding what that may be the fruition of which is granted. ... This state lasts only a short time, though the faculties do not . . . recover . . . for some hours. . . . It cannot be more clearly described, because what then takes place is so obscure. All I am able to say is that the soul is represented as being close to God ... All the faculties fail now, and are suspended. In the prayer of union the soul is asleep ... as regards herself and earthly things. The soul neither sees, hears, nor understands anything while in this state . . .
Laski (1961:123) says:
Sometimes the contact is felt to pass information, and we have
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a knowledge contact ecstasy, sometimes the contact is closer, and no information is passed, and sometimes this contact is of union.
The best Christian explication of the distinction between these three degrees of Knowledge-contact Ecstasies (Jhanas 2, 3, 4) was made by St. John of the Cross whom Reinhold (1973:329ff) quotes as follows:
Love unites the soul with God, and the more degrees of love the soul has, the more profoundly does it enter into God and the more is it centered in Him; and thus we can say that, as are the degrees of love of God, so are the centeres, each one deeper than another, which the soul has in God; these are the many mansions which, He said, were in His Father's house. And thus the soul which has one degree of love is already in its center in God, since one degree of love suffices for a soul to abide in Him through grace. If it have two degrees of love, it will have entered into another and a more interior center with God; and, if it attain to three, it will have entered into the third. If it attain to the last degree, the love of God will succeed in wounding the soul even in its deepest center - that is, in transforming and enlightening it as regards all the being and power and virtue of the soul, such as it is capable of receiving, until it be brought into such a state it appears to be God.
Outside of St. John of the Cross, there are no clear Christian distinctions here between jhanas 2, 3, and 4. They are essential Knowledge-contact Ecstasies of greater and greater degrees of intimacy and absorption. The Hindus do a better job. Patanjali (Eiade, 1969:9699) describes these as "knowledge states" with "miraculous powers." In jhana 2, Nirvitarka Samadhi (non-argumentative), the memory and logical operations of the mind have halted, and "thought is delivered from the presence of the ego." We would say that the object is transcended. In jhana 3, rapture ceases and there is direct knowledge. In jhana 4, all feelings cease, space and time are transcended, and there is "a fusion of all modalities of being." As creation is differentiation, so yogic escalation is integration, in which things go back into their original undifferentiated order.
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Let us imagine that a rather naive psychologist proposed to study happiness in marriage, and having no personal experience with that state himself, but having read that sex is important in marriage, and that orgasm is important in sex, he decides to rate the happiness of various marriages on the rate of orgasm experienced. Would his
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study be a very valid one? If we fall into a similar trap in allowing ourselves to "rate" syntaxic numinous experience in terms of ecstasy we have only our naivete to blame. For just as there are many aspects of marriage other than orgasm which contribute to conjugal happiness, there are many aspects of cognitive syntaxic development which are independent of the affective overtones of ecstasy and rapture.
It is even possible that we have been emotionally seduced by the "orgasm" concept of ecstasy; since orgasm is good, mystic ecstasy must be better. But as Sri Aurobindo austerely points out (Satprem, 1968:194-5)it is possible that ecstasy is merely the overloading of the affective channel:
Then instead of fainting away at the summit or what he takes for the summit, and believing that his ecstasy is a sign of progress, the seeker must understand that is is a sign of inconscience, and work to discover the living existence under his bedazzlement. Try to develop your inner individuality, says the Mother, and you will be able to enter these very regions in full consciousness. ... (i.d.)
This very reasonable view looks at ecstasy as a boundary of our present abilities, not as a definite state, and it explains both the somewhat disturbing fact that mystic trance looks a bit like prototaxic trance, and the ecstatic experiences grow less and not more as one comes nearer the unitive state. If this be true, and Sri Aurobindo prove a better guide to these regions than St. Teresa, the whole literature of mysticism needs to change its focus. Indeed, the word "ecstasy" from the Latin exstare (to be outside oneself) would need to be changed to "enstasy" (from enstare, to be inside oneself).
We shall continue with the "Christian" concept of ecstasy in our development of the graces, but this saving comment should alert us to the fact that this entire tradition may be founded on a misconception induced by affective overload.
Professor Leuba (1925) is skeptical about mystic ecstasy being more than hypnotic trance, self-imposed. He notes (Ibid: 187)that "the very first trance-experiences reach an intensity of feeling ... never to be surpassed" in which it resembles the "venting" of glossolalia (section 2.51) rather than any developmental effect. He also notes that the feeling of certainty of knowledge imparted under ecstasy is often felt under other types of mechanically or hypnotically induced trance where the evaluative faculty of the reason is held in abeyance. Finally he notes the great difference between the active, practical charity of the unitive state, and the automatisms of the psychedelic state. 'The wonders of trance ... had lost much of their initial glamor
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and . . . had receded to a subordinate place."
Since we are scientists, not religionists, it is not for us to follow Marechal in attacking Leuba for his skepticism. We would point out however, that Leuba lived in a time when most psychologists (with the exception of James) found it necessary to espouse such views because there was little support for any other. In contrast, the work since Leuba's time on the preconscious, creativity, the numinous element, developmental progress, biofeedback, self-actualization, psychedelia, and many other issues taken up in this volume give modern psychologists a much larger option.
4.75 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 2 (Jhana 3)
At this level all ecstasy and rapture cease. God not only touches the soul; he enters in. The self is made "like fire and light."
Reinhold (1973:361) quotes Symeon the Younger:
Again I saw Him in my house. Among all those everyday things He appeared unexpectedly and became unutterably united and merged with me, and leaped over to me without anything in between, as fire to iron, as the light to glass. And He made me like fire and like light. And I became that which I saw before and beheld from afar. I do not know how to relate this miracle to you.
Indeed it is possible that with the entrance of the numinous element "into" the saint, we have passed beyond the syntaxic mode itself, and are in something which can only be called the "meta-syntaxic" mode. Words and knowledge now cease to be very useful as either explanation or communication being succeeded by graces which are essentially ineffable and incommunicable. While we shall continue for the sake of simplicity to regard these higher graces as ostensibly belonging to the syntaxic mode, it should be understood that they involve a limit situation whose properties clearly transcend the attributes of the mode. An immediate corollary of this fact is that from now on we shall find the paradox of opposites ("neither perception nor non-perception") included in a plenum which transcends our understanding but has meaning at its own level. The Hindus call this level Savicara Samadhi in which there is direct knowledge and rapture ceases.
4.76 Knowledge-Contact Ecstasy of Degree 3 (Jhana 4)
This level completes the release of the self, which is transcended. All feelings cease. For the individual merges with the numinous element, and the "perceiver is one with the perceived." Words and
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descriptions now begin to fail to express adequately and accurately the transcendent activities, and are no more suitable to the occasion than prototaxic grunts would be in response to a great work of art.
In Underhill's words (1960:367)"The Transcendent is perceived by contact not vision."
"Oh, wonder of wonders," says Eckhart, "when I think of the union the soul has with God." And Suso says: "In this rapture the soul disappears, yet not entirely; it acquires certain qualities of divinity, but does not naturally become divine." Plotinus puts it; "The soul neither sees nor distinguishes by seeing." "It ceases to be itself ... it belongs to God." "The perceiver is one with the thing perceived." "Ecstasy is a desire of contact ... and a striving after union."
Underhill (1960:416)lists the three marks of the state as:
1. absorption in the interests of the Infinite,
2. freedom and serenity flowing from consciousness of its authority,
3.a center of energy in the world and lives of others.
Meister Eckhart tells us:
The knower and the known are one . . . God and I we are one. . . . The eye with which I see God is the same as that with which He sees me.
Cognitive knowledge (like carnal knowledge) has in its finality become union.
4.77 Conclusion for Psychedelic Stage
We have now witnessed (on paper) what the Battle Hymn of the Republic so beautifully describes as "the Glory of the Coming of the Lord." Whether we prefer to view the Lord as a personal God, or the numinous element as impersonal, the glory and ecstasy are clearly there even when diluted by being recounted on the printed page instead of being actually experienced. This dawning of celestial light has occurred in six stages of grace:
1) the "Response Experience" in which the pre-glow is seen in nature transformed,
2) the Adamic or time Ecstasy in which the self is purified and the "doors of perception are cleansed,"
3) the Knowledge Ecstasy in which the psyche is illuminated through the sight of the numinous element and knowledge is infused,
4) the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree one, which contacts the numinous element and the self begins to disappear,
5) the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree two, which effects deeper contact with the numinous element and rapture ceases, finally
6) in the Knowledge-contact Ecstasy of degree three, all feelings cease and the self merges with the numinous element.
To employ the language of tantricism (also used by some Christian mystics) the
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six graces portray:
1) the Bridegroom is present,
2) He is heard,
3) He is seen,
4) He is touched,
5) He penetrates,
6) He merges in complete union.
More austerely the Bhagavad Gita says of the mystical state, samadhi:
The self-controlled practitioner, while enjoying the various sense objects through the senses which are disciplined and free from likes and dislikes, attains placidity of mind. With the attainment of such placidity of mind, all his sorrows come to an end, and the intellect of such a person of tranquil mind soon withdraws itself from all sides, and becomes firmly established in the supreme reality.
Harding (1973:159) is definite about the advantages of the syntaxic mode of juncture between the conscious ego and the numinous element:
But if a man who has had an ecstatic experience succeeds in holding to his conscious standpoint and its values, and also retains the new influx that has come to him from the very depths of the psyche, he will be obliged to endure the conflict that two such widely different components will necessarily create, and will be compelled to seek for a means of reconciling them. This attitude is the only safeguard against falling under the spell of the nonpersonal daemonic powers of the unconscious; it is the modern way of following John's advice to "prove the spirits." If the effort is successful, an inner marriage will be consummated, the split between the personal and the nonpersonal part of the psyche will be healed, and the individual will become a whole, a complete being.
But perhaps the best metaphor is that of coming home. St. Augustine says: "Thou has made us for thyself and we are not happy until we dwell in thee." As Ruysbroeck says: "God is the home of the soul." One might quote Stevenson's epitaph as it so pertinently applies to the psyche:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea;
And the hunter home from the hill.
4.8 THE UNITIVE STAGE
While Christian mysticism pretty well stops with jhana 4, the last procedure of the psychedelic stage, the Hindus tell us of four higher
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jhanas which make up what we now call the unitive stage (previously, 1972, it was described as "illumination"). This is the fifth state of consciousness of the yogis, a state in which the altered state of consciousness is permanent. It is also a stage where all aspects of self have been transcended. It is consequently very difficult to say anything about it, as words are not adequate. Paradoxical statements abound as in most limit situations. (Christians who may be offended when such a mystic says "I am become God" may be comforted by recollecting that what the mystic is really trying to describe is an ineffable situation in which the semantic aspect becomes distorted.) What is apparent is that development has reached some higher level where there is even less of space, time, and "I-ness" and even more of the Absolute.
Laski (1962:63) quotes Poulain on the unitive state as:
1) a union that is almost permanent,38 persisting even amid exterior occupations;
2) transformation of the higher abilities (hence transforming union);
3) intellectual vision.
We will make a very brief description of the four higher jhanas, depending mostly on Goleman (1972).
4.81 Ineffable Contact (Jhana 5)
Here there is incommunicable knowledge communicated, and "consciousness of infinite space" (Goleman, 1972).
We need not detain ourselves with vain quibbles about whether the mystic is absorbed into Deity or whether he retains his conscious individuality. Words are simply not relevant or adequate, for paradoxical opposites become possible simultaneously at such exalted levels. What has happened is that the "not-me" of the early numinosium has become the me, and in place of dissociation, incongruity, and discontinuity between the numinous element and the individual psyche, there has come association, congruity, and continuity.
Jung states in the Secret of Golden Flower:
Every statement about the transcendental ought to be avoided because it is a laughable presumption on the part of the human mind, unconscious of its limitations.
4.82 Transcendental Contact (Jhana 6)
Here there is "objectless infinite consciousness" (Goleman 1972)
Younghusband quotes Ramakrishna's report of NirvakalpaSamadhi (1930:76):
In that rapture his senses and mind stopped their function. The body became motionless as a corpse. The universe rolled
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away from his vision. Even space melted away. Everything was reduced to ideas, which floated like shadows in the dim background of his mind, only the faint consciousness of "I" repeated itself in dull monotony. Presently that too stopped and what remained was transcendence alone. The soul had lost itself in the Self, and all ideas of duality, of subject and object had been effaced. Beyond speech, beyond experience, and beyond thought, he has experienced the Brahman - he has become the Brahman.
4.83 Ineffable Union (Jhana 7)
Here there is "awareness of 'no-thing-ness.'" As Underhill (1960:415) puts it:
The metaphysical mystic for whom the Absolute is impersonal and transcendent describes his final attainment of that Absolute as deification or the utter transmutation of the self in God.
While we are unable to describe in detail what is going on at these exalted levels, that does not mean that little is taking place. The real business of these high states is to make increasingly permanent and real the intimations of escape from the prison of time, space, and personality begun in the lower jhanas. For example, the Adamic Ecstasy (Jhana 0) with its time distortion starts the process of escape from time, but this feeling is experienced only in an ephemeral manner as if in trance: it is the first wiggle of the nascent butterfly in attempting to escape from the cocoon. Such transcendence becomes increasingly apparent at each higher level. Similarly the escape from the physical world of space is started at jhana 1, yet it is obvious from the descriptions of jhana 5, 6, and 7, that different aspects of this transcendence are being accomplished. Words may be inadequate to express the process of these high graces, and we may know little about what is going on, but we can intuit that the continued specifics of this transcendence are much involved.
Referring to Table XII, St. Teresa (Leuba, 1925:165) calls this unitive level Spiritual Marriage. Poulain (1912; Leuba, 1925:179) calls it Transforming Union. Patanjali (Eliade, 1969:100) calls the state Asampajnata Samadhi(samadhi without support), in which being and knowledge are undifferentiated, and thus the yogi becomes one with the deity. None of these authorities distinguish the unitive stage as having four jhanas, as does Goleman in Table VIII.
4.84 Transcendental Union (Jhana 8)
Here there is "neither perception nor non-perception" and it is obvious that words have now ceased to be of any use. It is also obvious
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that the individual psyche is now free of the triple prison of time, space, and personality, and to all effects appears to have merged with the numinous element, thus completing its journey through time, space, and personality and returning home.
While Goleman (1972) enters into a discussion of these levels, they are so far removed from most of us as to be a subject of only academic interest, even presuming that we can understand what is being said about them. It is probable that process is more important than position at these levels, and that no great good is served by the discussion of matters which we are really not ready for.
At this point it is suggested that Table X (Successive Integrations) again be inspected, remembering that a psychedelic vision is a psychological method of integration. Can it be that jhanas -1 and 0 (Response Experience and Adamic Ecstasies) are really openings onto the durative topocosm, that jhanas 1 to 4 (Knowledge Ecstasies) are openings to the entity level, and jhanas 5 to 8 involve archetypes? All of these levels would seem numinous to us, and humanity in general may have been very presumptive in the thought that any of the jhanas could reach to the Absolute.
It is important to attempt to restate for our Western minds, which are not used to the concept, that for the Hindu yogi, extreme concentration on an object becomes "grasping the object", first in knowledge of the essence of the object, and then in a "passage from knowledge to state," essentially becoming the object. Since the object is usually Isvara (the Lord), the result of this progression is deliverance. As Eliade 1969:96 explains:
The object is no longer known through associations. . . . it is grasped directly, in its existential nakedness. . . .Let us note that. . . . Samprajnata Samadhi is shown to be a "state achieved through a certain knowledge". . . . This passage from knowledge to state must be kept constantly in mind.... (it) leads to a fusion of all modalities of being. . . .
This absolute knowledge reveals that "knowledge and being are no longer discrete from each other." So the yogi who penetrates to Asamprajnata Samadhi (samadhi without support of objects) becomes one with the Deity. As Eliade 1969:114 remarks:
The human consciousness is eliminated ... its constituent functions having been reabsorbed into the primordial substance. . . . He is "the man delivered in life". He no longer lives in time, but in an eternal present, in the nunc stans that was Boetius' definition of eternity.
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If creation may be compared to the mathematical process of differentiation, then yogic escalation may be compared to the process of integration, for it returns to an undifferentiated state or function.35
If the thoughtful reader will now re-examine the relationship between subject and object, between noumenon and phenomenon, between the knower and the known, especially in sections 2.3 (Trance), 3.62 (Parataxic Mode: Image-Magic) and the present section in the Syntaxic mode, he will see the central thesis of this volume emerge: namely, that in the juncture between the individual and the general mind, duality is abolished, and through knowledge more and more complete, the one becomes the other.36 Notice that in section 4.2 (Tantric Sex), if the word know is used in the carnal sense, the knower and the known are fused in union. This integration or return to primordial unity is the finality of knowledge which in the end transmutes into being. Thus the dichotomy of symbol and referent, verba and res, thought and action, Shiva and Shakti is resolved by their transcendence of duality in union. "I am become God"; says Meister Eckhart, testifying truthfully to a mystic state which was as far beyond the comprehension of the churchmen who excommunicated him as the fact that complete knowledge can become complete being is above us. The omega point is reached when "the All shall know the All" for then All shall become All without differentiation. At every level, prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic, the upward escalation of humanity is a prefiguring of this "divine, far-off event."
But if we in the West have difficulty in grasping such a concept of absolute thought becoming absolute state, we should remember that the very same idea was proclaimed by none other than Socrates in the Symposium when he concluded:
This is the life which man should lead above all others in the contemplation of Beauty absolute. . . . Dwelling in that realm alone, he will bring forth not images of beauty, but Beauty itself, and so would become immortal and be the friend of God.
4.9 CONCLUSION
We have now come to the end of our analysis of the various procedures by which contact with the numinous element may be effected. It may be appropriate here to set down a number of observations and conclusions which have accrued during this investigation:
1. It should now be clear that the object of existence is the union of the individual mind with the General Mind. In order to achieve
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this we must escape from three illusions as one does in awakening from a dream. The first is the illusion of the reality of the physical world; the second is the illusion of the reality of time, and the third is the illusion of the reality of the separate self. There are three aspects to this quest, as there are three modes or levels of action. The first aspect is the freeing of the mind from the tyranny of percepts; the second is the escape into the eternal now, and the third is the loss of sense of self through the diffusion of the ego in developmental process. Since the three illusions are properties of the normal state of consciousness, liberation comes only through an altered state of consciousness.
2. The level of this liberation may be either prototaxic, parataxic, or syntaxic, through what we have popularly called trance, art, or creativity. At each level one escapes in some measure from the physical world, from time, and from self. The prototaxic vehicle which accomplishes this is trance. As we have seen, it produces spectacular liberation from the ordinary laws of physics, from time, and from selfhood, but at the price of the loss of conscious cognition and memorability, and the outletting of psychic energy at the kinesthetic level instead of at an aesthetic or cognitive one.
This disvaluing of the prototaxic manifestation of the numinous element in people is not that it is evil, but that it fails to meet the full potential of the human being. It is as de Condren suggested some centuries ago "the receiving of the effects of God and his holy communications in a very animal and carnal way."
3. The parataxic solution offers a bridge between prototaxic and syntaxic, containing some elements of both. Its highest outlet is in art where it offers an aesthetic ASC as a temporary freeing of the artist from physics, from time, and from selfhood. It has the advantage that there is feeling and some cognition involved, though at an iconic (image) representation, rather than at full cognition. The artist retains memorability, but is not always privileged to understand fully what he has accomplished. He is the channel rather than the author of the art. Nevertheless, the production of art objects means that the parataxic mode has social value in utility and beauty, in addition to increased individual benefit.
The domain of the numinousium contains an infinity of event-like elements, real in their realm, but only potential in ours (see Table X). From out this multiple infinity a single chain of events is realized in our space-time, by the reifying action of those conscious minds involved with the events. We speak of "event-like elements" in the numinousium rather than "events," for since that field transcends time as we know it (as ever growing later), our concept of an event
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as something that occurs in time, and our concept of one prior event causing a subsequent one, are merely the traces of a meta-event-like element which exists in the eternal now, and "which never was" (in our reality), but "is always happening" (in the eternal now). It is like the pattern in a textile made by the skillful weaving of the warp and woof by a master-weaver. All the thread colors are in all parts of the textile, but only those colors selected by the pattern of the weaver show forth on the surface.
4. Whereas prototaxic man is insulated from the numinous element by the necessity to enter an altered state of consciousness (wherein he generally loses consciousness, will, and memorability) in order to contact it, and whereas parataxic man is in a kind of semi-conductor position in which there is a fail-safe precaution built in on the energy discharge so that (at best or worst), he produces only images, - syntaxic man, with his knowledge of ortho-cognition and its derivative power, acquires corresponding responsibility. For his conscious mind is in contact with the numinous element, (or to put it the other way, it has reached the conscious level at last through his mind). Consequently, he has literally become a co-creator, and whatever he thinks, is liable to become an event in our space-time. With this awesome power goes the responsibility to purify his desires to the extended aspects of his environmental self, and to wish for nothing except that which is good and beneficial to others and to mankind.
5. We should become more aware of the curious symbiotic relationship between the ego and perceptual intake. The conscious ego appears to owe its stability to a narrow range of perceptual inflow; while the environment appears to owe its stability to continued cognizance by the totality of conscious egos. If perceptual intake is restricted, or expanded beyond certain limits, the normal state of consciousness as we know it is replaced by an altered state in which cognitive function is much reduced. A fish swimming in the sea regards the ocean as fixed and given; so we regard the normal state of consciousness. But it appears that in reality this normal state is a very "special state" which has been contrived in order for us to attend to perceptual events in space-time. Any considerable interference with that perceptual intake will shift consciousness into another state or mode. Such considerations suggest that not only is our normal state of consciousness a recent and specialized development, but that it is uniquely related to and sustained by the perceptual universe. If the rule works as well backward as forward, one wonders if the perceptual world of experience is not somehow related to and sustained by the collective consciousness which designs and observes it.
6. Let us look at the development of consciousness, that most
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significant aspect of life. Consciousness has an irresistible tendency to form; for every level of consciousness therefore, there is a vehicle, of which the physical body is only one example. Satprem (1968:307) quotes Sri Aurobindo on this journey of consciousness:
If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that is taking place in nature, then man, as he is, cannot be the last term in that evolution; he is too imperfect an expression of the spirit. Mind itself is too limited a form and instrumentation; mind is only a middle term of consciousness; the mental being can only be a transitional being.
The ordinary consciousness in the physical body tends to altered states of consciousness, and seems (as in the case of sleep) to require these intervals for proper rest and restoration. Tart (1971:3) says in this regard:
One of the most persistent and unusual aspects of human behavior . . . is man's dissatisfaction with the ordinary state of consciousness and the consequent development of innumerable methods of altering it.
The succession of conscious states is toward higher integration, not toward lower dissociation, toward more control of the environment, rather than less, and toward more grand perceptions of beneficence rather than toward the opposite. This principle is one of those facts (like the existence of the stars) which would be considered remarkable if we did not take it for granted. The process of integration in growth has the complementary virtues of being obvious in fact and transcendental in implication. It restores man from a reactive creature, differentiated in time to an integrated part of the noumenon. As Eliade 1969:199-200) says:
The ideal of yoga. . . . is to live in an eternal present, outside of time. The man, liberated in life, no longer possesses a personal consciousness. . . . but a witnessing consciousness, which is pure lucidity and spontaneity.
7. Regarding the three illusions:
a. The percepts of waking and dreaming (and hence all physical reality) are equally illusory, being governed by the generalized preconscious. This does not mean that the ordinary world of physical reality is without laws, but only that its supposed laws represent special cases of more general cosmic laws.
b. The consciousness of the ego as being bound in time and space
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and as being in one point in that space-time is equally illusory. It is a kind of fiction invented to give us the experience of cognition and development, and hence the scenario of life is a self-designed dream.
c. The idea of the ego itself as a separate bit of consciousness is also an illusion. Human life is but the history of the growth, development, and diffusion of this illusion. In order to encourage the gradual transformation of this process it is useful to encourage the enhancement of self-concept from its initial narrow sense of "my body" to its ultimate broad sense of "my world," passing through the intermediate stages of my possessions, my loved ones, my work, my associations, and my creations.
The physical world is of course not unreal, but it is only a special case of the larger vivency of the collective unconscious into which our individual egos are launched to gain the experience of cognition and will in a time and space-bound world. We are held prisoner in this restricted space-time with its physical laws by our sense of ego, reinforced by what we call the "normal" state of consciousness. (Actually it is a very special state of consciousness in which intelligence is particularized). But even in our ego-consciousness we can escape the restrictive laws of the physical world into the larger laws of the metaphysical world by passing into an ASC.
8. Lama Govinda (1966:17) points out that (since the syntaxic mode embraces the lower modes as well) ". . . the essential nature of words is neither exhausted by their present meaning, nor is their importance confined to this usefulness as a transmitter of thought" -for they express at the same time qualities which are not translatable into concepts. He continues that it is precisely this parataxic quality in poetry and oratory which stirs us so deeply. This statement by the lama is indicative of the fact that the three cognitive modes are "epigenetic" in Erikson's sense - that is, each succeeding one builds on the previous, and contains it, although emphasizing a new and emergent aspect. He again senses this hierarchy in stating (Ibid) "If art can be called . . . the formal expression of reality . . . then the creation of language may be called the greatest achievement of art."
The same intuitive grasp of the hierarchy of the three modes is evidenced by Satprem (1964:60) in his biography of Sri Aurobindo when he declares, speaking of growing enlightenment: "Once in possession of these . . . the seeker begins to know . . . things as they are, for he no longer catches the external signs, gestures, all that immured dumb show, nor the veiled face of things, but the pure vibration in each thing . . ."
Satprem (1964:55) says further:
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The task of the apprentice yogi ... is finally to become conscious in what men call death, for to the degree that we have been conscious in our life we shall become conscious in our death.
He (1964:103) quotes Sri Aurobindo as saying:
Matter is the starting point of our evolution; enclosed in it consciousness has gradually evolved; so the more consciousness emerges, the more it must recover its sovereignty and affirm its independence.
Finally he (1964:178) paraphrases Sri Aurobindo in stating:
Our sole problem is to lift ourselves to even higher planes by an individual evolution and our single life to transcribe and incarnate materially the truth of the plane to which we belong.
In a dream the perceptual events seem to be real, but actually are illusory, permuted about by unconscious forces, and the lucid dreamer knows that this is so, and that he is dreaming; in our normal state of consciousness, the percepts also seem to be real, but actually are equally illusory, being controlled and permuted by the collective unconscious, and the enlightened man like the lucid dreamer knows that this is so, and that he, too, is in reality in a dream. The dream state is to ordinary every-day "reality" as that reality is to ultimate reality; each state is the dream-state of the one above it.38
It appears that those who have successfully practiced the disciplines of the psychedelic stage and have reaped its enormous benefits fall into three classes. Curiously enough these categories are best delineated by another triple paradigm (Bruner's classification of concept formulation):
1. enactive (when the learning is in the muscles)
2. iconic (when the learning depends on signs [icons]
3. symbolic (when the learning has been completely integrated as a concept)
In the first two states, when the learning is less than fully complete symbolically, it can be approximated in the first instance through a system of body training (Hatha-yoga), and the following of ritual (such as Zen or alpha wave biofeedback), and in the second instance by recourse to icon-like archetypes which stand in the place of a concept which is too vague for complete cognitive formulation, but which indicates by a shadowy presence its substantive nature.
In the final instance, full psychedelic power is obtained, orthocognition is established, and the juncture of the conscious mind and the numinous element which presents itself as the collective preconscious
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brings not only creativity and serendipity, but literally the positive control of all aspects of man's self-concept from body-image outward to complete altruism. This "heaven on earth" "Omega point" is a literal re-establishment of the pristine Adamic estate, at present glimpsed only in ecstasies and visions. It is contained, of course, within the "durative topocosm" which exists throughout time, and waits only on man's developing mind to again bring it to physical manifestation. It is in this concept that psychology comes to aid man in understanding what was formerly called "the mystic path" in a more modern and useful way.
10. When we reflect on the enormous loss to the psyche when it leaves the state of the numinous element and dips into space-time and the existence of an individual ego, there must be some counter-vailing advantage to this perilous descent into mortality and finiteness. That advantage is clearly the cognitive consciousness, whose possession gives not only the opportunity to observe and experience nature, but also to co-design the world of experience. It is this latter opportunity which is the precious one, for it takes the conscious will to direct the numinous element to manifest events.
Let us remember that human life is but the projection of a greater individuality into the restricted cognitive ego, bound into space-time, where it takes a flight through the eight developmental stages, hopefully to return again to the Spacious Now, having completed the developmental cycle in ego- integrity and altruism. Presumably, this process is to gain the cognitive experience which this life affords as an added facet of the larger individuality. But consider some of the difficulties that can befall during this mortal interlude. For one thing, the ego may get enmeshed in mortality, arrested in the developmental process and fail to complete it, thus being consigned (as the Bardo Thodol tells us), to an endless recyclement until it breaks out of its circle. But there is an inverse peril for those who become developed. It is that the individuality, while still in its ego dream, will become enough enlightened to understand that the laws of physics which govern the space-time world are only a special case of the laws of metaphysics which govern the domain of the Eternal Now.
We have called this partial awakening orthocognition, and like the lucid dream (in which the dreamer knows he is dreaming) this insight gives the option of conscious use of the expanded laws of metaphysics to the still partly selfish ego-consciousness; in short the creative man gains psychedelic powers over his environment. The danger of not renouncing the world before we gain power to transcend it is that we will never want to renounce it at all, and that the
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individuality in the diminished form of an incompletely developed ego will trap itself in a garden of earthly delights. This is why true mystics would rather endure suffering than suffer the temptation of enjoyment. It is also why orthocognition, despite its wakening powers, should be used with wise restraint. For power corrupts, and we must be sure before we use it that our hearts and desires are pure. A worse fate than not getting one's desire is to get it and find it was the wrong thing to have in the first place.
11. At intervals during this ordinary-reality dream, certain aspects of the psyche gain the upper hand, so that the ego (either in trance or meditation) does not pay attention to ordinary reality. When this happens, the larger individuality takes over, and the person is not bound by the laws of ordinary reality. Hence, these people during this situation (which we call dissociation or trance), may walk on fire, levitate, prophesy, become clairvoyant and telepathic, and influence nature directly to name some of the more important examples. To be sure, in the prototaxic mode, these effects can be accomplished only by the temporary exclusion of the ego (which because of its reality-relating properties could not tolerate consciousness under these circumstances). But in the syntaxic mode when the ego expands to greater understanding, it can be allowed to remain though with various degrees of light dissociation. The proper function of altered states of consciousness, which allow the operation of the laws of non-ordinary reality, is to permit the conscious ego to design and order the natural events or ordinary reality in harmony with goodness.
It is the business of the ego to attend to ordinary reality; it is the business of other parts of the psyche to relate to non-ordinary reality, that is, the noumenon outside our space and time. While we may look at our ordinary reality as "real," it is actually the other way around, for it is non-ordinary reality that is the ultimate real. Actually the laws of physics in our ordinary reality are only a special case of the laws of metaphysics in non-ordinary reality, for our ordinary reality is but a special and restricted area in the larger domain, with special and restricted laws. During our little life here, the ego appears as an artifact of the eight developmental stages, rising in the first and setting in the last, in order to gain cognition and will in a space-time-bound situation, hopefully to return to the Eternal Now fortified with the cognitive experience gained here. But all the while the real existence of the individuality is in the Spacious Present of Non-ordinary reality.
12. Suppose it is determined that the best way for the numinous element (which appears to us in a present state of hypnotized and unindividualized subjective preconsciousness) to gain rational
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consciousness is to project a series of nascent individualized egos into time-space experience. There, hopefully, they develop, effloresce, and eventually return to the undifferentiated spirit fortified with the jeweled experience of initiation and selection in will and consciousness. (At least this is one way of looking at it for us in the dream.) This, then, is the experience which we call life.
Our egos are ephemeral, transitory events, which develop (like waves), effloresce, and diffuse, carrying back with them to the Spirit which originated them the precious experience of rational consciousness. This individualized process is carried out in eight stages of development, discovered by Erikson:
in stage 1, the ego is absent;
in stage 2, it rises and differentiates;
in stage 3, it explores love of self and parents;
in stage 4, it stops trying to make people and starts trying to make things;
in stage 5, it reaches its zenith of separatism in the adolescent identity- crisis;
in stage 6, it begins diffusion in love of the beloved and in creativity;
in stage 7, it further diffuses in parental succorance, and psychedelic experiences;
in stage 8, it sets in illumination, knowing that its destiny is to transcend self;
in stage 9, it is again absent.
The central issue in the development of man is the relationship between the generalized impersonal mind (which we call the preconscious) and the particularized conscious manifestation of it (which we call our individual consciousness). Each of these aspects of intelligence brings to their psychedelic union its own peculiar and characteristic powers, and each needs the support of the other. The generalized mind, which exists in a hypnotized impersonal state has genie-like powers over the environment including ourselves, but lacks conscious will and personality. The particular conscious mind has the regnancy of individual will, consciousness, and rational thought, but lacks the generalized powers, which can only be wisely and usefully released in a union of the two (which we call the psychedelic state).
In the unitive state, these two aspects are joined; and as in a closed electrical circuit, the current flows, empowering the human consciousness with quasi-divine authority, and humanizing the impersonal preconscious with the rationalizing of human conscious evaluation in place of the dark archetypes of the collective subconscious. To be sure, not all these methods are of equal value, for some allow for much more rational control than others, and it is this rational control of the process which is the continuum on which they should be evaluated.
To the extent that each individual human mind shares in the generalized preconscious, it becomes a creator, just as the generalized preconscious is. Therefore, every human has the potentiality of
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creation, not just of ideas but of actual reality; and from this it follows that whatever people believe in, becomes real in an existential sense. The enormous implications of this concept, (which among other things solves the problem of the origin of evil) are extremely important for each of us to understand, so that we do not, by negative thoughts, add to the sum total of evil in the world, but instead contribute to its opposite - the good.
The numinous element appears in the process of becoming, in the process of manifesting, in the process of building, toward what is to us a future event of perfection. All that precedes that dawn is prologue, including the dream world in which we live, for this can be conceptualized as no more than the numinous element trying out different facets of its power and energy through the medium of our individualized lives, much as a concert artist tries out themes before a symphony concert. But that rehearsal is a necessary part of its evolution, for when housed in us, it is able, if but in the blink of a man's lifetime, to blend its awesome power with the personal element which it alone lacks: it is able in a finite life to become complete, and to pre-figure the "far-off Divine event" of the poet, when all having been brought to perfection, the All will fully cognize the All. Thus each individual life is part of an eternal prologue in which the numinous element is being perfected and completed to a new and more glorious dawn. Thoreau, that rustic seer, said of this process: "That day is yet to dawn, for the sun is only a morning star!"
LIBERATION
Imprisoned thricely by the walls
Of time, space, and personage,
When shall we heed the voice that calls
To tell us of our lineage?
It rises silent as a spring
Within the quiet of the mind;
It is a different sort of thing;
It bids us leave the world behind.
In time's cocoon we swing asleep,
Perchance a lucid dream tonight
To will begone the pupal deep
And wing the butterfly aflight.
Arise my soul and seek thee now
The glory of the noumenon;
For thou art That, and That art thou;
So from thy fetters hence begone.
Man is not dust; he comes afar
And recognizes not his home.
Our sun is but the morning star
To that celestial dawn to come.
Oh Spirit, that has made us bold
To think such thoughts in lieu of Thee,
Make manifest in men untold
This avenue to liberty.
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FOOTNOTES
1. This statement is true of the current scene. But time-transcendence may yet prove amenable to scientific investigation. The slowing-down and speeding-up of time at speeds approaching the velocity of light offer physical indication of its relativistic nature.
2. To be discussed in Section 4.5.
3. See Section 4.5.
4. For a good discussion of the siddhis, see Eliade 1969:178ff.
5. For example, consult Le Shan 1974, Ferguson 1974; Hammond 1973.
6. Eliade 1969:328-332 discusses the production of psychic heat in shamans and yogins.
7. The Nobel Prize novelist, Herman Hesse also wrote of such matters in Sparkenbrokeand Siddartha.
8. For further discussion of psychic sound see Eliade 1969:390.
9. But possibly not the original meaning. The principal obscene English verb goes back a long way to the Sanscrit "phat" (to fertilize or beget) which root appears in the Latin verb "to be" (sum, ease, fui), in the participle "futurus" (from which we get "future"- to be begot into being), and the Italian fiat (let it be begot or made). The existence of the three stems: 1) sum (I am), (c.f. sacred mantra "aum"), 2) esse (essence, being) and 3) fuiin the three principal parts of the Latin verb "to be" is curious. There is even an isomorphism between this verb and "to know"; both in their finality result in being and becoming (see sect. 4.84). The surface trace of this isomorphism is seen in the fact that in the ancient and carnal sense the two verbs are synonyms.
10. Since our Western views of tantra are so liable to error, we urge our readers to consult Blofeld (1970) or Eliade 1969:232ff which contain extensive discussions. The latter cite discusses the production
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of psychic heat by the kundalini ascent, and mentions that "this heat is transmuted sexual energy." "The tantric ideal is to achieve simultaneous immobility of breath, thought, and semen" (Eliade 1969:248).
11. e.g. Sodium is to potassium as Spain is to Portugal.
12. Previous six paragraphs from Gowan (1972), copyright by R. Knapp Co and used by permission.
13. This section has been abstracted from the M. A. thesis of graduate student, Debby Zeff.
14. This section and the next are from Gowan (1972) copyright by R. Knapp Co. and used by permission.
15. In fairness, it should be noted that while this statement from the text is accurate with regard to the initial emphasis of the Buffalo Creative-Problem Solving Workshop, during the 1970's, under the enlightened direction of Sidney Parnes, it has devoted increasing attention to creativity as psychological openness, as may be seen by its use of this volume as a text for the 21st workshop.
16. (See note 12)
17. (See note 12)
18. The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks the kindness of Dr. Stanley Krippner, the leading expert in this area, in permitting this extensive quotation from his 1972 article.
19. The first eight paragraphs are quoted from Krippner (1972).
20. See section 3.36 for further material.
21. For Dodd's Epicosm Model see the Appendix.
22. This section is due to graduate student Nancy Donaldson. For update on this subject, consult Barber and others (1970), Stoyva and others (1971). Shapiro and others (1972), and Miller and others (1973). These Aldine Annuals come out each year. See also the extensive bibliography on alpha and biofeedback in Ferguson 1973:88ff, 347, 352-5.
23. This topic, which has obvious connections with healing, is well documented: see Barber and others 1970:351- 447, Stoyva and others 1971:245-283, Shapiro and others 1972:191-253, and Miller and others, 1973:295-363.
24. This section is due to graduate student Nancy Donaldson.
25. Here has been removed a lengthy section giving the pros and cons of this subject, which it was felt would not be interesting to the general reader.
26. We hazard the guess that it may also be emitted through the feet, and perhaps even the genitals. It is suggestive that hands and feet contain acupuncture points for the whole body, and that there are traditions that highly evolved persons may be recognized by the
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perfection of their hands and feet. For other special aspects of the extremities, see note 6 Table III.
27. Satprem (1968): has coined the word "entasy" as an anonym to "extasy" (ecstasy). If exsto, exstare, exstavi, exstatus, means "to stand outside," then ensto, enstare, enstavi, enstatus, would mean "to stand inside."
28. This idea was given me by James Beggs in a personal communication.
29. The author acknowledges the help of Bill Zika in the preparation of this section.
30. For an elementary treatise on this writer, see Donnelly (1956). For zealous students, Satprem (1968) is perhaps the best. Aurobindo himself is difficult reading.
31. And hence fraught with less siddhis and less psychic danger.
32. Suggested to me by John Whiteside.
33. This effect was pointed out to me by Barbara Hubbard who has observed it as a phenomenon of her SYNCON conventions.
34. For this and higher jhanas, see Eliade 1969:170ff.
35. See Eliade 1969:272.
36. Maslow (Kepes 1966:134-143) glimpsed this concept in his article, "Isomorphic relationship between knower and known."
37. A very recent psychological survey of American mystical experience comes to attention as we go to press. It is The Sociology of Mystic Ecstasy by A. M. Greeley and W. C. McCready (National Opinion Research Center), Chicago, (mimeo.), n.d. (abstracted in Newsletter Review 7:1:61-65, Spr. 1974, R. M. Backe Memorial Soc'y. 4453 Maisonneuve Blvd. Montreal 215, Quebec). With an N of 1467, 60% had felt in touch with an absent person, and 39% had had a response experience, the most common triggers being aesthetic, religious, and sexual. Peak ages were 20 and 35, and the occurrence was correlated with socio-economic class indicators as with Laski's research. Moreover they tend to be highly intelligent, creative, and in good mental health.
38. When humans are in a "developmental front" between two states of consciousness, they experience the phenomenon that the state toward which the development is moving first comes rarely and transiently and for just a few moments (nature-mystic experience). As one progresses (or in schizophrenia, retrogresses), the state comes more frequently and lasts longer. It becomes habitual, and finally permanent (or nearly so), which is what has happened here in the higher jhanas.
39. A hertz (hz) is one cycle per second.
40. This late cite is not in bibliography. (Ph.D. United States International University, San Diego, 1974. Write Dr. Charlotte Malone, 7121 Wandermere Dr. San Diego CA, 92119).
APPENDIX
The epicosm model of the material and mental universes
STUART C. DODD Department of Sociology, University of Washington Seattle, U.S.A.
Summary
Let cosmos = Uo = I = the universal set of all nameable elements, n in number, and let them be called "actants". Hypothesis 1. If n actants interact, reiterantly, randomly, and ceaselessly, then they will always be forming and unforming compound actants, each in its own life-cycle, by trying out all their nnpossible combinations, or permutations, or repetitions, and thus operating the cosmos and all its parts largely by the "key" self-reiterant processes (i.e. 2n, n2 , 2n, nn, uncreated creators of all that was, or selfmade makers of all that is, forever working towards greater fulfillment (= nn) of what may be. More exactly: if all n actants thus interact, they form the cosmos overall at a fixed creation rate, C, in 8 levels of organization, each a normal distribution with its average life-cycle in one eon or log century of time - all as more fully hypothesized in the epicosm model.
SPECIFICATIONS
The specifications for this epicosm model of the cosmos are as follows. The model tries to state the following:
(A) A semiotic system which describes, extensionally in terms of sets and elements, man-symbol-thing systems. So some of the model's symbols (concepts, scales, operation signs, etc.) become some of its substantive variables. (See Rows A and B of the Reiteratings Matrix appended as Exhibit D.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*See TRANSACTIONS (Vol. III Social Sciences) of the International Congress of Cybernetics held in London, August, 1969. c/o J. Rome Blackburn College of Technology, Blackburn BB2 ILH, Lancastershire, England.
(page 393)
(B) A stochastic system which explains probabilistically how each state yields the next by reiterant operations.
(See Row B of Exhibit D.)
(C) A self-reiterating system which predicts continually its own self-creating (= 2n), and self-fulfilling (= nn)
(See Row C of Exhibit D.)
(D) A testable system which controls, by indices above 99%, (1) its reliability in descriptive reobserving, (2) its reproducability from explanative antecedents, and (3) its agreement with predicted outcomes. (See last section, Exhibit D).
FEATURES
The features of the epicosm model in five versions (A) - (E) follow herewith.
(A) Popularly stated, the core epicosm hypothesis helps to describe the cosmos thus (in either four or eighteen words).
If all n ACTANTS' INTERACTS occur in nn ways, then they con-
tinually ORGANIZE COSMOS and all its parts.
Here:
cosmos = the set of all things namable;
actant = any thing namable as its element;
interacts = any repeatings, combinings or permutings of actant elements or sets of them;
to organize = to interact = to build;
continually = ceaselessly = without start or stop;
occur = happen = reiterate;
parts = pieces = samples = aspects
(n is estimated by the model as Cn7=1077 = 2256 real and rising primal
actants in the 7-level universe, so nn = 2 raised to the power of 2264
(B) Algebraically stated, the epicosm equation helps explain cosmic growth thus:
Uo = 1 = a/ct
This says: "The universal set of cosmic actants is unitary (Uo = 1). It builds up to level t as the number of actants at (in logs), which equals the constant creation rate, C ( = lg2 10 = 11), if multiplied by the time taken, t (= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), so c = a/t."
(C) Geometrically stated, the Mass-Time Triangle (MTT) graphs the epicosm model in Exhibit A.
It shows cosmic self-control, or complexity, H, as an area or product of actants x interacts, of abscissa x ordinate, of
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A x lg A, of n x lg n (so H = n lg n = lg nn = a self-power or fulfilment of possibilities in bit units).
Exhibit A pictures the cosmos (i.e. the n actants) if organized, or built up, as self-products, into seven real levels and one top imaginary level. This top level measures all symbols or speech acts of society. This integrates all communicated mental activity with all other cosmic activity - perhaps the first non-mystical mathematical model to achieve operationally such integration of mind and matter. (See Exhibits A and B for details.)
Four inductive steps discovered the MTT as follows.
(1) Plotting masses of actants found the interlevel quantum jump (Cn = 10±11 tons).
(2) Plotting these against their time sequence, t, found high correlation (rnc.t = ±1.0 ).
(3) Plotting masses against levels found their constant log creation rate, (= log Cn = c/1 = 11).
(4) Plotting ± c found the isosceles triangle (MTT) or normal-curve-in-logs, which the central limit theorem proves to synthesize all distributions of means of actants in the cosmos.
By deductive steps, one can read off averages from the MTT for each level in turn, its smallest mass and size, frequency and age, number of actants and interacts, degree of organization and complexity, and rate of cosmic evolution and devolution. All these are hypotheses deduced from the epicosm system, a/ct = 1, ready for further empirical testing.
(D) Technically stated, the Epicosm theory helps cosmic predicting as follows (see EpiDoc 128).
If all n actants, or things namable, interact
= the core hypothesis
and do so randomly, reiterantly and ceaselessly,
= 3 postulate hypotheses
thus forming and unforming in life-cycles
= the universal cyclic hypothesis
all combinations, permutations or repetitions
= the combinatoric hypothesis
in all their possible nn ways.
= the fulfillment hypothesis
Then they form the cosmos and all its parts
= the core consequence hypothesis
as a vast normal probability distribution,
= the normal consequence hypothesis
(page 395)
organized in 8 levels of complexity, at = ct
= the 8 levels consequence hypothesis
at a creatant rate, c, of actants c = log Cn = lg210 = 11.03522
= the creatant consequence hypothesis
organized one level per eon or log century of time, t,
= the eon-century consequence hypothesis
by compounding self-reiterant processes, Ks = 2n, n2, 2n nn
= the Key reiterants hypothesis
- all as spelled out further in the epicosm modelling
= the residual epicosm hypothesis.
(E) (1) Statistically stated, the Epicosm modelling applies the theory of stochastic processes to the cosmos, if cosmos is defined as the unit universal set, Uo = 1, of all things namable.
By this definition, or semiotic operation, everything in the cosmos reappears as a fraction of one. Then in the future tense, everything can be, in principle, measured as a probability or proportion of unity. Every science then seeks to discover the precise amounts and relations and systems of compounded probabilities of its actants (or "phenomena-viewed-as-sets"). Since every probability density function adds up to one by definition, these stochastic functions express alternative and specifiable ways of analyzing the infra-structure of any set up to, and including,, the cosmos. Stochastic formulas then portray cosmic phenomena as the probable acts of cosmos.
(2) Thus the binomial and normal distributions arise from the simplest intra-acting of a set of n elements (= no = 1) with itself n times when structured into its two half-lives:
(no)n = (1/2 + 1/2)n= (p + q)n = 1n = 1 = (nn)0= 1 set.
(3) In polar co-ordinates,
eøi = cos ø + i sin ø = e2pini (= 1n = 1 = Uo for interger n). This on-going unitary cosmos, Uo= 1, is analyzable into cycles of a cohort of actants. Thus as e2pinti = 1nt = 1, the eon cycles are of size or radius n, = 1/t, and t = 8 in number, so nt = 1. This is here hypothesized to measure cosmic activity as n actants, and cosmic time as t cycles, in general.*
Then their product, activity x time (in erg seconds), or A x t or n x lgn (= H) can measure the complexity of the universe as an area in the mass-time
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* n and t are ordinarily taken as finite, representing a finite slice, or sample, of a potentially infinite number of interacts. When n and t are infinite, one is then talking about "the eternal cosmos", and not about the current finite slice of its constant and ceaseless on-going.
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triangle, defined by any specified n and t (such as "the spatial universe", "the material universe", "the living universe", "the mental (i.e. verbal) universe", etc.).
(4) All this stochastic interpretation of the unit cosmos, Uo = 1, may go far towards explaining the cosmos causally by combinatoric processes, themselves products of reiteratings, Ks, of actants. If this semiotic hypothesis holds up, man can say:
"Reiterant interactions of actants seem to describe the content of the cosmos, as Uo= 1 = a/ct; and explain their continual creation as the characteristic function of a single random process, i.e. E e2pini, and predict their future as the Gompertz entropic growth and decay curve of cosmic evolution and devolution, i.e. pt = 1 - q2t.
All these and other stochastic submodels are semiotic hypotheses, that spell out the epicosm modelling in detail - which is largely awaiting exploration.
IMPLICATIONS
The implications of the epicosm model, too manifold for full discussion here, may be suggested by the notes below.
(1) The whole epicosm modelling has been formally systematized in a tight semiotic theory of 32 hypotheses, for eventual publication and wider testing, (See EpiDoc 42.)
(2) Over a hundred tests of fit, averaging above 99.5% of agreement, have
been run between the model's formulas and major constants of mathematics
and the physical sciences. e.g. G of gravity, C, light, F, Faraday's constant,
in one series; e = 2.7182, cy = .5772, i = sq. root of -1, 0, 1, 2, 4 in another series, etc.
(3) Lists of many further testable fits await funding to execute.
(4) Two technical hypotheses of high promise seem to be: "If the reiterating matrix (see Exhibit D) is systematically explored and tested, cosmologists will gain measurably in explaining and predicting cosmic activity."
(5) "If the key periodic table for generating cosmic constants (EpiDoc 144) were similarly expanded and fitted, cosmologists could measurably improve cosmology."
(6) Two highly controversial, yet important, physical hypotheses are: "Epicosm theory is more able than current physical theory to account for negative entropy whereby the cosmos, with no external source of energy, yet builds up the stars, galaxies, and all other organized entities to their current state."
(page 397)
(7) "If antilog time scales, at, were appropriately substituted for the present standard sidereal time scales, ts, where atdef = ets or lnat = ts, then the universe would reappear as non-expanding consistently with the red shift and all other empirical facts. This calls for semantic, not hardware, testing. This antilog time hypothesis seems not only to produce a constant universe but it also seems fully to solve the problem of creation, whether gradual or sudden bang, by predicting and postdicting an eternally existent, and overall constant, on-going.
Five hunches, for example, expect that epicosm modelling might help
(8) to explain anomalies of quasars,
(9) to systematize subatomic particles,
(10) to develop a unified field theory,
(11) to predict fission of photons into gravitons,
(12) to generate curved space and gravity from a random state of completed entropy; etc.
Note four Epicosm hypotheses of human import:
(13) One hypothesis expects that on our Earth total evolution will accelerate in verbal and mental ways more than in physical or physiological ways.
(14) Another hypothesis expects that inner-directed or self-governing systems whether in atoms or cells, persons or nations, tend to gain compared with outer-directed systems.
(15) Based on the physicists estimate of 1078 particles in the universe, the mass-time graph expects well over a hundred billion, 1011, Earth-like planets with conditions suitable for humanoids to have evolved on them.
(16) Finally, a summarizing hypothesis expects that human systems, in common with all systems, will tend with sufficient time towards fuller trying out and consequent greater fulfillment ( = nn) of their potentialities.
This leaves great freedom for men to hasten or hinder, to redefine or alter such fulfillings as they desire. The design of the cosmos and all its parts including man seems to tend toward mutually compatible self-fulfillments.
APPENDIX 1: EXHIBIT A EXPLAINED
Exhibit A graphs the cosmos overall as a unit isosceles triangle or normal curve on log co-ordinates. Its internal structure is pictured (by these loglog units) as a hierarchy of eight nested triangles with a common apex. Their eight base lines represent the eight levels of increasing complexity into which cosmic activity (i.e. phenomena) seems currently organized. These ascending levels seem to evolve in eight successive log-time periods. They go from the state of completed entropy at the bottom (Level G) to the mental activity of
(page 398)
The Mass-Time Triangle Diagram (linked gif diagram)
(the MTT is also available as two separate, unlinked pdf files on this website):
http://people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/jag8/mtt90.pdf (vertical)
http://people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/jag8/mtt180.pdf (horizontal)
(MTT diagram courtesy of Dick Spady and Niche Press)
(page 399)
symbols used by society at the top (Level Ai). The graph therefore shows the evolving of cosmic action (or phenomena measured in erg seconds) within each first half-life of every cohort of cosmic action elements (called "actants").
The co-ordinates in the graph of this mass-time triangle are in units of common log cycles. The abscissa is measured in metric tons (convertible into erg seconds). When generalized, it represents the amount of activity, a, or number of actants at any level, t. Then the ordinate simultaneously represents (a) the rank in complexity of the level from 1 to 8 (in units of the creatant, c = lg210 = 11.03522 =11); (b) the degree of organization (as a log of the activity); (c) the amount of interaction of the actants (in log cycles of self-products); (d) the correlated time, t (in logs of centuries ago).
Then the equation for the two sides of the mass-time triangle in logs is -ac = ± ct. This says that the cosmic activity (at) or number of actants at level t equals the creatant, c, or rate of organizing that activity, times the period (t) it took. This equation for the cosmos, = Uo = 1 = a/ct (when the cosmos is extensionally defined as the universal set (= Uo) of all namable elements) summarizes the epicosm model.
The mass-time triangular distribution can be interpreted when re-graphed as a log transformation of the normal probability distribution of' all actants
in the cosmos. To show this, take natural logs of the normal equation, transforming it to a parabola, i.e. ln(y) = ln(e |- X2/2|) = - x2/2 and then take bits-logs transforming the parabola into the MTT's straight-line sides, i.e., lg lny = lg |-x2/ 2| = 2 lg x - 1 or T = (± )2M - 1 where T = lglny = time and M = lg x = mass.
Viewing the cosmos or universal set of all actants (or phenomena) as a normal distribution is supported by the central limit theorem and the binomial theorem. The former says in effect that properly adding all distributions of actants in the cosmos together must yield a normal distribution. The binomial theorem says that n rounds of full interacting, or self multiplying of the rising and falling halves* of the cosmos (as (p + q)n = 1n = 1) will also yield a unit normal distribution. Thus, the cosmos, if built of randomly interacting primal elements (or like elements at any level) will organize itself continuingly as a normal distribution if looked at through these symbols or concepts of randomly interacting halves.
Thus, an extensional and semiotic re-viewing of the cosmos opens up vast vistas for science and for human understanding of everything around and
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Or halves of any set where p = q = .5 and no = (no/2 + no/2) = p + q = 1 .
(page 400)
within us. For this normal cosmos entails for every properly specified actant, or compound of them, a unique and computable and absolute probability of occurrence. Every science is then seen as the re-search on how best to specify actants in its field by the most fruitful empirical techniques of observation and semiotic* techniques of symbolizing. The epicosm modelling is largely a semiotic inquiry to find more fruitful concepts - such as "actants", "interactants", and "reiterants", etc., seem to be.
A dual interpretation of the mass-time triangle - in its static versus dynamic aspects - should be well understood. Just as the formula for the circular circumference, 2pin, can be graphed either as one circle of radius n or as n circles of unit radius, or just as "a set of elements" should be seen both as a unitary set and as a plurality of elements, just so the epicosm formula, a = ct, and its graph (the MTT) should be viewed both as a static picture at one date of eight cohorts of actants varying over eight different phases of their life cycles#; and also as a dynamic picture at eight dates of one cohort of actants evolving through eight successive phases of its life-cycle.
Further interpretations of this normal cosmos when viewed through log units are tabled as readings from the full mass-time graph. These estimates, for each of the eight levels of cosmic organization, its probable minimum, median, and maximum of equivalent mass, time span, age, length, number of actants (= A), degree of organization (= lg A), degree of complexity (= A lg A or lg AA), fulfillment (= AA), and rate of organizing (= A/lg A) or average speed of evolving and devolving.
Thus, the epicosm model's induction of a normal cosmos seems fruitful for many important deductions - all as hypotheses to be tested, of course.
APPENDIX 2: EXHIBIT B EXPLAINED
Exhibit B plots all material entities in the cosmos by their mass, cross-classified against their rank in organization. It tells how the epicosm model was developed by inductive steps. When actants were listed by increasing weight, an important periodicity emerged. Equal intervals of eleven log cycles, 1011, a factor of one hundred billion, were observed between the smallest entities at each of the four most observable levels of organized actants. (See the four dots in Exhibit B.) The threshold actants at the successive levels of matter, life, man, and society fitted well to the straight
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Semiotics is the science of man-symbol-thing relations or systems.
# Or first, and rising, half-life cycles, more exactly.
(page 401)
(image page 401 here - EXHIBIT B (under construction))
(page 402)
diagonal line, C. (See Exhibit B.) This line measured a constant rate of organizing 1011 actants per level or per log century of time (since sequence in organizing showed a perfect rank correlation with log intervals of time). This rate of organizing is interpretable as the cosmic speed of evolving, i.e. a creation rate of a hundred billion (= Cn = 1011) actants organized per level or eon of time, if reckoned back from the present.
This "rate of evolving" hypothesis (that expects a constant ratio between interlevel jumps in organization of actants and their correlated time periods) was then explored further. It was dramatically found to hold if extended in this mass versus time graph both upwards and downwards and even sidewards in a symmetric and complementary downslope taken to measure a rate of devolving from an apex.
Details of these extensions, as hypotheses generalizing the rate of evolving index, C, to all levels of cosmic activity or phenomena, are developed in the 160 EpiDoc mimeographs or working notes prepared to date for checking and eventual publishing. Here these exhibits will simply sample these semiotic hypotheses which claim that better symbolizing can make better relations among actants, and systems of them more observable and testable.
Glimpses of fruitful consequences of extending this constant creation rate*, C, upwards, downwards, and sidewards in the mass time graph may be seen through the following four sentences that state four "extension hypotheses".
(1) If the constant creation rate, C, is extended upwards (by using complex numbers) through Level Ai in the mass time graph, then all society's speech activity and consequent mental life will become more observable and testable as that special case of the epicosm formula, a = ct, for all cosmic activity, or phenomena, when t=1 (i.e. the ever-current present century).
(2) If the constant creation rate, C, is extended downwards (by equaling C to the speed of light) in the mass-time graph, then all the physical phenomena and laws invoking radiant energy, or gravity, or completed entropy will become more observable and testable as those three special cases of the
* The rate of cosmic evolving, called the creation rate, C, was first estimated at 1011actants organized one level upwards per eon of time by the best fit line (in the mass-time graph) to the four points representing the smallest material, living, human, and societal entities, i.e. the electron, the cell, the fertilized human ovum, and two spouses. Later five "isotopes" of variants by other units or definitions have been discovered, including the speed of light if re-expressed as 1011mm per third of a second. Millimeters and thirds-of-a-second replace centimeters and seconds as units of length and time in Epicosm modelling because they yield simpler, more parsimonious, and better systematizing formulas and laws.
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epicosm formula, a = ct, for all cosmic activity when t = 6 or 7 or 8 (i.e. their formative period between ten billion and ten quadrillion years ago).
(3) If the constant creation rate, C, is extended downwards and rightwards from an apex (by using its opposite sign) in the mass-time graph, then the upper limit of actants in each level and the nature of all cosmic on-going as the concurrent life-cycling of all its actants, in cohorts by levels, will become more observable and testable. This is the reversed or devolving case of the epicosm formula, a = ct, for all cosmic activity when t rises from 1 to 8, measuring increase of positive entropy, or "heat death", or disorganizing of each cohort of actants in its second half life.
(4) If the constant creation rate, C, is extended by rotating it 90 degrees in the mass-time graphing, then all cosmic activity becomes more observable and testable as a vast, normal, probabilistic and stochastic process which, as t varies from 8 to 0, varies from purest chance or least predictability (with p = (10-2c)8 = 10-176 = 0 at Level G) to perfect law or complete predictability (with p = (10-2c)0= 100 = 1 at Level A).
APPENDIX 3: EXHIBIT C EXPLAINED
Exhibit C is entitled "The mass-time triangle extended through the radiation spectrum". This graph enlarges and fills in the mass-time graph from the Level F for gravity through the energy Level E and up to the matter Level D. It shows that the action or phenomena of radiant energy and gravity in their varying degrees can be viewed as a special case (when t = 5, 6, 7 in a = ct) or representative sample of overall cosmic action and laws. One can either generalize to (i.e. induce) the cosmic law, a = ct, from this graph, or particularize (i.e. deduce) this graph in physics from the larger law of cosmic activity, a = ct.
This radiation spectrum graphs the wavelengths plotted against their frequencies for waves of radio and radar, visible light, X-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays, up to the electron or threshold of matter.
The slope of the graphed line represents the speed of light which is C = 3 x 1010 cm/sec.This becomes Cn = approx. 1011 mm/third-of-a-second when translated into millimeters and third-of-a-second in the simplifying and systematizing terms standardized throughout the epicosm modelling. For then, Cn = 1011 becomes approximately the cosmic creation rate or ratio of actants organized one level upwards per eon of time, throughout the mass-time graph. Then, the graph measures the rate of organizing photon actants into
(page 404)
(image page 404 here; EXHIBIT C (under construction))
(page 405)
particle actants and the rate of organizing or creating photons (of about 1 mm wavelength) from the hypothetical gravons (of about Cnmm wavelength),
A useful consequence of equating the creation rate to the speed of light (in appropriate units of length and time) seems to be that the mass-time graph, if amplified as in Exhibit C, can be used to read off or predict the results of clean fission or fusion between photons and particles. Thus, when a laboratory's clean fission of a proton and its paired anti-proton into a pair of photons of exactly the same mass was published, the wave length and frequency of those resulting photons was read off correctly from the mass-time graph interpreted by Exhibit C.
Furthermore, the mass-timc graph enables predicting clean fission and fusion between specified photons and the hypothesized lower levels of gravons as elements of gravity at Level F and entropons as elements of the state of completed entropy at Level G.
Thus, the epicosm modelling seems to offer powerful symbolic tools for analyzing the activity of gravity and entropy where hardware tools are not at present adequate.
APPENDIX 4: EXHIBIT D EXPLAINED
Exhibit D is entitled "The reiteratings matrix, Rrc, for cosmists". It tells broadly how scientists, starting from scratch without even a language, can build models for the past, present, and future cosmos. Row A of this 4 x 4 reiteratings matrix tells how every symbol that man ever uses is built by the trio of acts called "reitering". Reitering is operationally defined in Row A as the intersect or product of three acts, namely combining a name and a thing named; repeating that naming among people, occasions, and contexts; without permuting or changing it. This trio of combinatoric speech acts seems to create every standardized and socialized and recurring symbol known or knowable to man.
Then Row B tells how four successive and cumulative rounds of reitering produce the four "key operators" and operations of all mathematics, logic, and language. Compounding these operations builds all syntax. Syntax in turn relates all symbols together producing all language and the communicated knowledge of man.
Row C, next, tells how the simplest and most probable self-reiterings of the four Key Operations form the four "Key Processes". These, when mixed
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and blent as sums and products, etc., seem to produce the regular entities and their formulas of whatever exists or happens around us and within us.
Finally, Row D organizes cosmic on-going or phenomena in four submodels by tenses. These try to help explain the past causation of the cosmos; to describe its present contents; to predict its future consequences; and to control more and more of its compounding at any time. The synthesis of these submodels produces the epicosm model. This tells how the n cosmic actants, interacting in their nn ways that tend to fulfil all their possibilities, continually organize the cosmos. Its summarizing epicosm equation, Uo= 1 = a/ct, asserts for testing that the unitary cosmos, if defined as the universal set, Uo, of all things namable, is organized in eight levels or subsets of random and reiterant actants (at=8 )which are ceaselessly and constantly formed and unformed by the creation rate (c) and the time taken (t).
(Comment by JCG) : Refer to the four operations of Table D, row C, and take n = sq. root 3 . We then have: 1) 3.46 (r); 2) 3; 3) 3.32 (h); and 4) 2.59 (f); all rounded to nearest hundredth, and in what follows the "fit" is approximate not exact:
r lg r! = lg h2 = 2 lg lg 10 = 3pii/e.
h lg 10 = 2 sq. root 3 , so lg lg 10 = sq. root 3
f = lg 6 = anti lg k where k = Boltzman's constant /100, or log k = k/ 10
*******************
Or take n = t, where tt = 2, then
2t = 3.16 = sq. root 10; t2 = 2.50 = u, where uu = 10,
2t = 3.00 and tt = 2. One could go on with other equally remarkable equations, for the set of operations in row C is basic, being a special case of the generator:
(1 + n-1)n
whose upper limit is e. Sets are the basis of Dodd's general system theory which suggests that all sciences are isomorphic, capable of being reduced to these functions, provided we can find the "natural" units.
(page 407 - 408: Dodd's 4x4 matrix))
Dodd's 4x4 matrix - page 1 of 3 (jpeg)
Dodd's 4x4 matrix - page 2 of 3 (jpeg)
Dodd's 4x4 matrix - page 3 of 3 (jpeg)
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Aaronson, Bernard S. "Hypnotic alterations of space and time." Psych. Abs. 42:18195, 1968.
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GLOSSARY
ARCHETYPE: A motif or generating entity, postulated by Jung as a fundamental aspect of the collective preconscious and seen (usually) only in disturbing dreams.
ASC: Altered state of consciousness
CHAKRA: One of several nodes or centers said to be in the etheric body which regulate the flow of pranic energy.
DURATIVE TOPOCOSM: The integral with respect to time of a given event. That entity which is to a given event as climate is to weather. A plenum of potential events of which a given event is the time-trace.
DYSPLASIA. The arrest of cognitive development with respect to affective development.
ENTROPY: Disorder or randomness.
ESP: Extra-sensory perception
GLOSSOLALIA: Speaking with tongues
GRACE: A mystic experience, a special procedure of the psychedelic level.
HYPNAGOGIC: The state between waking and sleep
HYPNOPOMPIC: The state between sleeping and waking
i.d.: italics deleted
i.o.: italics in original
i.n.o.: italics not in original
JHANA: A grace; (by extension) one of the procedures of the syntaxic mode.
KUNDALINI: A pranic energy (called "serpent power") said to ascend the spinal column awakening chakra centers and culminating with samadhi upon reaching the head.
MODE: A method or style of experience (specifically receiving the numinous)
NOR: Non-ordinary reality, a vivency of ASC
NUMINOUS ELEMENT: The impersonal, ineffable Absolute
OSC: Ordinary state of consciousness
ORTHOCOGNITION: ("right-cognition"); a valid model of reality; realization of the triple illusion of time, space, and personality.
PARATAXIC: Experience (of the numinous) received as images (as in art).
PROCEDURE: A specific activity (and hence a constituent part) of a mode.
PROTOTAXIC: Experience (of the numinous) received before images, hence somatically.
PRANA: psychic energy
PRECONSCIOUS: That aspect of the psyche sometimes, although not always, available to the ego.
PSYCHEDELIC: ("mind-expansion") - That state when the powers of the preconscious are opened up for conscious use: a higher syntaxic level involving peak-experiences and mysticism.
REM: Rapid eye movement (characteristic of dreaming in sleep).
SAMADHI: grace, mystic experience
SCRY: To foresee, sift the future, to crystal gaze or predict.
SERENDIPITY: The art of discovering those things for which one was not looking.
SIDDHIS: Psychic powers (such as ESP)
SYNTAXIC: Experience (of the numinous) received cognitively with full consciousness.
TANTRA: School of Indian philosophy which regards sexual union as a prefiguration of oneness with the Divine.
UNSTRESSING: Somatic and vocal expression (such as writhing, crying, yelling, sighing) characteristic of the discharge of stress.
VIVENCY: A theater of action in which consciousness finds itself (the physical Universe is the vivency of the ordinary state of consciousness).
*****
FOOTNOTES
to Chapter I on page 23
to Chapter II on page 172
to Chapter III on page 243
to Chapter IV on page 389
*****
The theme of this book quoted from page 379:
"In the juncture between the individual and the general mind, duality is abolished, and through knowledge more and more complete, the one becomes the o
)
INDEX (see also the table of contents)
alpha 314-320
animus (a) 184
Arica 341
ASCID 100
Aurobindo 24, 254, 345, 384
Autogenic training 79
Beauty and the Beast myth 209
cherubim, 216
collective preconscious (see numinous)
communitas 221
creativity 195, 238, 277-313
Dialog House 336
direct voice 58
durative topocosm 206, 251, 363
ecstasy 367-372
Ego transcendence 16, 366-380
Einstein 1, 260, 245, 260
ether 256
ESP 296
excursus (excursion of ego) 24, 77, 173
fantasy 197
general systems 310, 393-407
hallucination 118
healing 131-135, 268, 330
Huxley 335
hypnotic stages 72-3
Integral Yoga 345
kahuna 324, 329
kundalini 276
Langer 191, 283
lucid dream 201, 324, 385
metanoia 74
mysterium tremendum 6, 9, 242
mystic 351-375
Nichiren Shoshu 337
not-me 25
numinous element xxi, 1, 3, 174, 227, 235, 250,255,381
orthocognition 207, 320-330, 385
possession 57
positive disintegration 28, 65
precognition 116,200,266
preconscious 116, 200, 266
psychic sound 21, 246
psychic tension 176, 208
Psychocatalysis 340
replicability xi
response experience 358
right hemisphere 130, 261
Semantic Differential xvii
space 12, 257-61, 320, 366
speaking with tongues 152
Sufi 47
Sullivan 2, 25, 175
Swedenborg 116, 235
telepathy 114, 266
three illusions 10, 25, 382
time transcendence 14, 117, 206, 232, 240, 244,253,361,363
totem 213
trickster myth 209
TM 338
Troward 6, 321, 328
Unstressing 31, 151, 264, 269-70
uruboros 181-2
Van Rhijn 2, 25, 175
Vedanta 344,
vivency 11
witness effect 309, 347
Zen 342